Boxoffice > The Business of Movies

$43.9 M For ‘This Is It’ in Nine Days

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:48:37 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It led Thursday’s box office with $2.17 million, in what should be the film’s final day in first place domestically. This Is It was up 3 percent from Wednesday and down a solid 42 percent from last Thursday. That suggests that the much hyped Sony release will hold up well this weekend. Thanks in part to solid midweek business This Is It grossed $32.65 million for the week, which places the film’s nine-day total at $43.86 million. This Is It is currently $21.43 million away from matching the domestic performance of 2008’s Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour (which charged higher admission prices, but also played in much fewer locations).

Paranormal Activity remained in second place with $0.98 million. Paramount’s low-budget horror film was up 9 percent from Wednesday, which represented the film’s first daily increase since this past Saturday. However, Paranormal Activity was down 40 percent from last Thursday as a result of the momentum it has lost in the days after Halloween. For the week Paranormal Activity was down 36 percent with a second place showing of $20.59 million. Although it will likely experience a significant slide over the weekend, Paranormal Activity has already grossed an exceptional $88.83 million through its first six weeks in theatres.

Overture’s Law Abiding Citizen finished in third with $0.80 million. The R-rated action-thriller continues to hold up well, as it experienced a 10 percent increase over Wednesday and a decrease of just 13 percent from last Thursday. Law Abiding Citizen grossed $10.62 million for the week, which was down 36 percent from the previous week and brings the film’s three-week total to a better than expected $54.70 million.

Couples Retreat remained in fourth with $0.67 million. Like Law Abiding Citizen, the PG-13 comedy from Universal also continues to hold over nicely, as it was up 13 percent from Wednesday and down a very slim 4 percent from last Thursday. Couples Retreat grossed $8.99 million this week, which was down 33 percent from last week, and has grossed $89.55 million through 28 days of release.

Where the Wild Things Are rounded out the day’s unchanged top five with $0.59 million. That was up a positive 17 percent from Wednesday and down just 23 percent from last Thursday, as the Warner Bros. release held up well during the midweek. However, the solid holds of the past few days are likely too late to make a significant difference for the film, especially with Disney’s A Christmas Carol opening in theatres today.

North by Northwest 50th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:05:28 -0800

The career of Alfred Hitchcock was as iconic as it was influential and his catalog of sensory-stilted suspense stories would not be complete without the self-aware mystery-cum-comedy North by Northwest. Rather than merely recycling his popularized wrong man motif, Hitchcock lights a match under progressivism and allows his latent ideologies of filmic technique to boil over the surface. The movie becomes a means to express the perceptual completeness of film versus other mediums, namely in how it can send our senses askew; to immerse the viewer in a reality different from their own. Though such a claim seems broad and hardly exclusive to Hitch, North by Northwest is a film that revels in that faux-reality that we call cinema—a work that not only entertains but is fully conscious as to why.

Cary Grant and his trademarked rapier wit coincide perfectly with Hitchcock’s formal trends. Both the actor and the craftsman are larger than life and their projection of the fantastic is the driving force behind North by Northwest. The script is trim and penned painstakingly with wit. Grant plays woeful advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill, an outspoken, confident man whose New Yorker schedule leaves little room for leisure. Still, the character is not solely capitalist, for he's depicted as more amiable than your typically cold allegorical constructs. Thornhill is a man wound too tight. Never deviating from his schedule, his attention to detail is borderline obsessive in that he’s usually in the utmost control of every situation. This is why the story’s jumping off point is so clever in its coincidence—a man who places a premium on communicative clarity is mistaken due to an untimely hand gesture. He falls victim to the chaotic nature of social dynamics and, because in the wrong place at the wrong time, becomes a hapless, helpless pawn in a game outside his control.

Thornhill is assumed as George Kaplin—a believed CIA agent—and is subsequently thrust through a gauntlet of misunderstanding and misrepresentation, all in an attempt to clear his name and identity. His troubles come to extend beyond reputed villain Phillip Vandamn (James Mason) to the United States government after yet another dramatically cinematic mix-up. It is at this point that Hitchcock begins to blur the moral alignment of his characters and valid points on motive—political and personal and cinematic—arise. To understand the reasoning of director Hitchcock is to understand the characterization and ethos of his players.

The world of North by Northwest is a realized one, but a technologically dated one in that such blunders could not exist within contemporary society. Some of the picture’s most iconic moments and movements would be irrelevant today if it weren’t for the movie’s inherent time-capsule quality. Taken within the context of the medium, North by Northwest remains a personal favorite, even if my appreciation for it has diminished a bit over time. It’s still template material for magniloquent cinematic styling, especially in terms of taking Hitchcock’s classic film language and injecting it with a playful inflection.

Transfer and Packaging

This Warner Bros. produced disc does an exceptional job in representing Alfred Hitchcock’s vision. A noticeable step up from previous DVD editions, the BD amplifies detail, sharpness, and vibrancy while retooling some saturation to ensure the markedly-50’s color palette of the original print. Grain exists in fairly light doses, which helps and hurts. The neat schematics of the New York City streets look crisp and authoritative, though some of the more scenic exterior shots could benefit from an earthier mood. The images are slightly darker as a whole, but not at the expense of brilliant color.

The retooled audio track comes across as stronger—perhaps more emphatic—than previous releases, though not to the point of distraction. Bernard Herrmann’s rhythmically frantic score sounds as crisp and threatening as ever.

The casing itself is a bit awkward to handle. In the vain of their Amadeus release, Warners has again infused the pages of the special edition booklet into the spine of the case, creating a book-like box that has not the warmth of a book or the functionality of a case. Pages don’t open fully and the design is less than comfortable to wield. It’s cute in a display piece way, though isn’t substantial enough in size or decor to warrant such attention. Nonetheless, the cover looks smart and the robust BD treatment make this purchase a gimme anyway.

Mickey Mouse Getting Reinvented

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:17:37 -0800

Source: Times Online

Amidst waning merchandise sales and the popularity of edgier cartoons from Pixar and DreamWorks, The Walt Disney Company has decided to tweak the look and attitude of its flagship character, Mickey Mouse, for the first time in decades.

The change will come in a new video game, called Epic Mickey, which sounds similar to the PS3 game Infamous. Players will be presented with a number of scenarios and will be allowed to choose whether to take co-operative or destructive courses of action, which will eventually change the character's appearance and development.

The studio hopes the move will reconnect Mickey to audiences aged 13 to 34 and suggests that the new version of Mickey will be similar to his persona in "Steamboat Willie", the 1928 short in which the character had his debut. Epic Mickey arrives on the Wii in 2010.

Fisher to go South of the Border in 'Desperados'

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:41:08 -0800

Source: THR

Universal Pictures has picked up Desperados, a comedy written by Ellen Rapoport that will be potential 'starring vehicle' for Isla Fisher. The script follows a woman who sends a hateful email to her M.I.A. boyfriend, but, after discovering he's comatose in a Mexican hospital, she runs to intercept the message before he recovers and reads it.

The project, which is being described as a female version of The Hangover, would not be Fisher's first collaboration with Universal. The actress is currently developing and producing The Cookie Queen at the studio and is also attached to Universal's Life Coach.

Fisher, who igrabbed theater audiences' attention as Gloria in 2005's Wedding Crashers, recently graced the big screen in Confessions Of A Shopaholic, which earned $105 million worldwide.

Faris, Aykroyd and Timberlake Consider 'Yogi'

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:01:30 -0800

Source: Variety

Anna Faris, Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake are reportedly in talks to join the cast of Yogi Bear, a live-action/animation hybrid that Warner Bros. will release in 3D next December.

Aykroyd would voice the title character, while Timberlake would take on duties as his sidekick, Boo-Boo. As for Faris, she'll play a documentary filmmaker.

Yogi is not the only 3D project that Warners plans to distribute in 2010. They'll also release Hubble 3D, Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore, Friday the 13th Part 2 and Guardians of Ga'Hoole.

Weekend Cinema Listomania (Special They Walk Among Us! Edition)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:02:46 -0800

Video Event of the Week: Could it be Sony's DVD version of the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 with Denzel Washington and John Travolta? Would Fox's 20th anniversary Blu-ray of Say Anything, the brilliant Cameron Crowe teen romance starring the young John Cusack, conceivably make the cut? Or, god forbid, against every decent human impulse that separates us from the primordial slime we oozed out of, might Paramount's DVD and Blu-ray of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra by any chance be The One?

All worthy, to be sure, except for that last of course, and I'll have more to say about Say Anything down the line. But for my money, it's got to be the Criterion Collection's ravishing new two-disc edition of Wim Wenders' magisterial Wings of Desire.

The official description, via Criterion:

Wings of Desire is one of cinema's lovelist city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts -- fears, hopes, dreams -- of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art.

That's pretty accurate, as far as it goes, and yet it doesn't quite get to what's so magical and touching about the film. There's something wonderfully childlike and innocent about it, of course, and it's surprisingly funny -- with Peter Falk (playing himself, sort of), one of the great screen characters ever, how could it not be? And the (mostly) black-and-white cinematography is not just pictorially stunning, it's practically a character in itself; the aforementioned Alekan, who if he'd shot nothing beside Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast would deserve to be one of cinema's immortals, really surpassed himself here. Wenders also conjures up an amazingly palpable sense of place; he conceived the film in part as a study of a city he loved and yet (after years in the US) felt somewhat alienated from, and the evocation of Berlin as a sort of island outside of time is particularly vivid.

Here's a clip (nowhere near as good looking as it is in Criterion's transfer, alas) to give you just a taste.

Criterion's new transfer (I saw the DVD -- I assume the Blu-ray is incrementally better) is just about flawless. I had an Image laserdisc of Wings in the late 80s that I used to use as a system demo to impress folks with in my proto-home theater; let's just say that compared to this, the old version looks like a scratchy third generation dupe of an 8mm home movie. The original stereo soundtrack has also been cleaned up and remixed to 5.1 surround, and it's great.

The bonuses, as is customary with Criterion sets, will keep you busy for a while. Disc one (the film itself) has a running audio commentary by Wenders and Falk and a couple of trailers. Disc two has a new making-of documentary (featuring Wenders, co-writer Peter Handke, and a few other worthies), plus excerpts from two documentaries on Alekan (who is very French and very charming) plus a bunch of deleted scenes and outtakes. The making-of doc (from 2003) covers a lot of the same ground as the audio commentary (from the late 90s), but to the credit of all concerned, nobody in either suggests that the folks behind the awful 1998 American remake City of Angels, with Nicolas Cage in the Bruno Ganz part, be taken out and shot. Myself, I wouldn't have been quite so magnanimous.

In any case, you can -- and obviously should, immediately -- order Wings of Desire over here.

Okay, with that out of the way, and since things are likely to be little quiet around here for a few days, here's a relevant and hopefully fun little project for us all:

Most Memorable Film Featuring the Meddling of Some Supernatural Entity in Human Affairs, Great or Small!!!

5. Gabriel Over the White House (Gregory LaCava,1933)

That's Gabriel as in the archangel of the same name. In the film, he takes over the body of the U.S. President (Walter Huston) and institutes a wingnut millenium; you have to see it to believe it, actually.

4. Dogma (Kevin Smith, 1999)

More fallen angels, this time played by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Alannis Morrisette, as God(!), is in there as well, which for me is worth the price of admission.

3. Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)

Ralph Richardson as an even funnier Supreme Being than Alannis. Why does he allow evil to exist? "I think it's something about free will."

2. The Ghost Breakers (George Marshall, 1940)

Spooks run wild, and the kind of note perfect mix of comedy and horror they really don't make anymore.

And the Numero Uno film about intervention from beyond, without a doubt, just happens to be...

1. The Prophecy (Gregory Widen, 1995)

Hands down, the most magnificently nutty horror flick of the last couple of decades. What's it about? Well, as I said in these pages back in February, technically it's about some kind of epic post-Miltonian battle between angels pissed off at God for some reason (Viggo Mortensen has a cameo as Satan), but mostly it's about Christopher Walken, in an amusing rug and a rock star coat, bitching about "talking monkeys" and posing like Snoopy doing his vulture impression. I should also add that it spawned four -- count 'em, four -- sequels (Walken, picking up a fat check one hopes, is in two of them) and that its high point comes when Walken raises Amanda Plummer from the dead because he needs her to drive his car.

Alrighty then -- what would your choices be?

Twitter Box Office Update

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:51:56 -0800

Friday is upon us yet again, meaning it is the Twitter Box Office tracking project's 8 week birthday. Upwards and onwards! Below is the graph and accompanying data of tweets for all films this week.

Movie	Mon	*Tue*	Wed	Thu	Total
A Christmas Carol	849	1,110	1,088	1,721	4,768
Men Who Stare At Goats	495	691	793	1,270	3,249
The Box	222	398	644	1,132	2,396
The Fourth Kind	515	752	873	1,570	3,710

A Christmas Carol finished the week with 4,768 tweets, more than double Cloudy With A Chance of Meatball's 2,268. Monday made up 17.81% of the total as compared to 16.87% for Cloudy, whereas Thursday's tweets accounted for 36.09% of the total for Carol as opposed to 36.43% for Carol. In other words both films had almost the exact same tweet distribution over the week which gives credence to the comparison. The recognizability of Jim Carrey's name and the timeless Christmas story will see Carol having a greater appeal to older audiences. This expands its box office potential but also its tweet to box office ratio. Cloudy saw a ratio of 282 tweets per $1m in its Friday box office.

Men Who Stare At Goats rose 477 to 1,270 tweets for Thursday and 3,249 for the Monday to Thursday period.The best comparisons here for target audience would be, The Informant! with 2,128, The Invention of Lying 1,622 and Law Abiding Citizen 3,229. These three films had a 580, 655, 431 ratio respectively. It has proven to be that in general the lower theatre counts you are in the higher your ratio will be so it will definitely be higher than Citizen's figure.

The Box finished the week strong as most thrillers/horrors do to end at 2,396 tweets. By comparison Pandorum had 1,663 tweets and I expect a very similar ratio so this at least won't flat out bomb like that film did.

The Fourth Kind followed a similar pattern as The Box and ended the week at 3,710 tweets. Saw VI ended with 8,975 tweets and had a bigger Thursday jump of 48.57% to 42.32% but it was ahead of Zombieland's 38.76% (though way behind its tweet total of 11,609). I had this film pegged for great things at the start of the week but it really sagged in the middle compared to my expectations despite all the buzz of it reaching Paranormal Activity's fanbase.

The Box

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:25:29 -0800

Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly takes a stab at adapting fantasy writer Richard Matheson’s short story Button, Button. What results is the opposite of pressing. Rod Serling could have said everything The Box says in nearly two hours and compress it into one thirty-minute episode of the Twilight Zone—and he’d have made it more compelling. In fact, he may have. With the low-budget Paranormal Activity still going strong and The Fourth Kind also hitting multiplexes, this inchoate thriller is unlikely to earn substantial coin. Sci-fi lovers should find it risible, and those who devalue the genre will have their biases confirmed.

A deep economic recession is an opportune time to release a film that hinges on a married couple’s choice between obtaining much-needed cash and harming an anonymous fellow human being. The Sci-fi elements of such a scenario could be jettisoned with no harm done to the movie’s financial performance. But because The Box has the speculative source material that it does, and since the paranormal is definitely not out of vogue, that wasn’t an option.

A mish-mash of hokum posing as deep thought, The Box considers what transpires when Norma and Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) are told that if they press the button on a device mysteriously delivered to their home two things will happen: someone they don’t know will die and they will receive a million tax-free dollars. The time is 1976. The place: Richmond, Virginia. Arthur is a NASA engineer working on the Viking mission to Mars and Norma teaches literature at the private school their son attends. (On her syllabus, Sartre’s No Exit.) Years ago, she lost the toes on one foot in a freak X-ray accident and walks with a limp. Now she’s due for another operation. Adding to their financial woes, Arthur’s hopes of joining the astronaut corps are dashed. The courtly man that appears on their doorstep wearing a charcoal grey topcoat and Bromberg poses this proposition on behalf of his unnamed employers. His name is Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) and one-quarter of his face is missing.

Not cogent and barely coherent, the tale writer/director Kelly spins is short on action and special effects. As the slow-burn tension builds, so does our sense of bewilderment. Are we dealing with an alien invasion and/or abduction? A vast government conspiracy? Is it a case of a madman with no access to reconstructive plastic surgery? What’s with all the bloody noses and the zombies lurking outside the Lewis residence, marching through the public library and working as parking valets and waiters at a family wedding? The Galaxy Motel is a locus of intrigue, apparently extraterrestrial, and at the library Arthur gets a glimpse of the beyond after passing through a portal that functions like a burst waterbed.

As for the moral choice the Lewis’ face, it’s strictly kid stuff, mixing the micro and the macro in a confusing manner that never plausibly or imaginatively accounts for the movie’s many dangling threads. Arthur and Norma must make a second decision during the climax—it involves their son, about whom we don’t care a wit by the way. The bogus existentialism on offer relies on references to something called the “altruism coefficient,” as well as to the works of Sartre. As far as I can tell, it all comes down to a classic (read: tired) dynamic in speculative literature: some entity or force much bigger than man (it might even be God) tests the moral fiber of the human race.

Macabre and mysterious in the hokiest of ways, The Box couldn’t be a less life-altering movie about a “life-altering proposition.” The invocation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law— “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”—seems like a bad joke. Not only is the substance a jumble but with the exception of Steward’s digitally-mangled visage, there’s nothing distinguished about the production values. At one point, Steward observes that we humans are wont to put ourselves in boxes—such as the houses we live in, the cars we drive and the caskets we end up in. He neglects to mention movie theaters. That’s one type of box it’s within our power to avoid.

Distributor: Warner Bros.
Cast: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn, Holmes Osborne, Sam Oz Stone, Gillian Jacobs and Celia Weston
Director/Screenwriter: Richard Kelly
Producers: Richard Kelly, Dan Lin, Kelly McKittrick and Sean McKittrick
Genre: Sci-fi/Thriller/Drama
Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, some violence and disturbing images.
Running time: 115 min.
Release date: November 6, 2009

UPDATED: Weekend Predictions

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:16:57 -0800

Thursday Afternoon Update (2:16 p.m. PT): As of 1 p.m. PT, MovieTickets.com is reporting that Disney's A Christmas Carol is responsible for 13 percent of daily ticket sales, while Fandango.com is reporting 12 percent.

The Fourth Kind, The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Box have all failed to make a dent on Fandango.com. Goats was able to post two percent of sales as of 1 p.m. PT on MovieTickets.com.

Michael Jackson's This Is It is still posting strong sales, and it's headed for a possible second place finish this weekend. The concert flick tallied 20 percent of sales as of 1 p.m. PT on MovieTickets, and 13 percent on Fandango.

Check out our final Top 10 predictions in the table below.

	Weekend Predictions: November 6 to November 8, 2009
	Title	Gross (M)	Cume (M)	Locations	Inc./Dec.
1	Disney's A Christmas Carol	$42.0	$42.0	3,683	New
2	Michael Jackson's This Is It	$15.0	$58.8	3,481	0
3	The Fourth Kind	$13.5	$13.5	2,529	New
4	The Men Who Stare at Goats	$13.2	$13.2	2,443	New
5	The Box	$8.5	$8.5	2,635	New
6	Paranormal Activity	$8.5	$97.9	2,558	+154
7	Law Abiding Citizen	$5.2	$59.9	2,474	-290
8	Couples Retreat	$4.3	$93.8	2,846	-180
9	Where the Wild Things Are	$3.1	$67.9	2,756	-889
10	Saw VI	$2.3	$26.5	2,091	-945

Wednesday Afternoon Update: Moviegoers will have plenty to chose from at the multiplexes this weekend since four new films are headed into wide release.

While Disney's A Christmas Carol will be aiming for family audiences, The Men Who Stare at Goats will try to scoop up adult patrons. Meanwhile, The Fourth Kind and The Box will face off for the attention of horror enthusiasts.

Christmas Carol's best asset is definitely the presence of Jim Carrey. While the star's dramatic turns have caused him to stumble at the box office, his track record with family-friendly material is nearly flawless. Most recently, the rubber-faced actor provided his voice to Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, which turned into a $154.5 million domestic hit. Add to Carrey's reliability the fact that Christmas Carol is an established property, and you have a recipe for a surefire #1 opening.

Christmas Carol, which is opening at around 3,500 locations, marks the third time that director Robert Zemeckis has utilized motion capture technology in order to bring his vision to theaters. Even though certain visual aspects of 2004's The Polar Express were criticized, the film raked in $180.7 million domestically and it has also benefited from being re-released during the holidays. In 2007, Zemeckis made Beowulf, an action-packed take on the classic story that was able to rake in a respectable $82.3 million domestically.

Christmas Carol looks as though it will end up somewhere between those two films in terms of box office receipts.

As of 4 p.m. PT, MovieTickets.com is reporting that Christmas Carol is responsible for eight percent of sales, while MovieTickets.com reports seven percent.

Expect Christmas Carol to rake in around $43 million during its debut frame.

Coming on the heels of the success of Paranormal Activity, The Fourth Kind will offer moviegoers a similar set of thrills, except with aliens instead of demons. Star Milla Jovovich isn't exactly a heavyweight at the box office, but her Resident Evil films have gained her a certain level of trust.

The Fourth Kind could open with around $13.5 million from about 2,450 locations this weekend.

Following the success of Law Abiding Citizen, Overture will try to turn The Men Who Stare at Goats into a hit. The film's quirky subject matter will certainly limit it from becoming a huge hit. Luckily, the all-star cast led by George Clooney should help convince mainstream audiences to take a chance on an unconventional film. It will also help that the film is receiving strong critical support.

Expect Goats to grab a respectable $13 million from 2,200 locations during its opening frame.

The Box will most likely lose out to The Fourth Kind in the battle of the horror films . Even though she has appeared in some very successful projects, star Cameron Diaz is far from a sure thing at the box office. This past summer, My Sister's Keeper posted an underwhelming $49.2 million domestic haul. Unfortunately, Diaz won't receive much help from co-stars James Marsden and Frank Langella.

The Box should be able to muster around $9 million this weekend from more than 2,500 locations.

After claiming the top spot last weekend, Michael Jackson's This Is It may only drop 35 percent during its sophomore frame. According to Rentrak, the Sony release has already made $108 million worldwide.

Check back tomorrow for our Top 10 weekend predictions as well as official location counts.

Additional reporting by Daniel Garris.

‘This Is It’ Remains in First Place

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:11:08 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It remained in first place for the eighth consecutive day on Wednesday. Sony’s concert documentary grossed $2.11 million for the day. That was down 72 percent from last Wednesday’s opening day performance and down a sizable 21 percent from Tuesday. However, nearly all films in wide release experienced significant daily declines from Tuesday’s grosses, which were inflated from Election Day. This Is It passed the $40 million mark yesterday and has grossed $41.69 million through eight days. That places the film 39 percent ahead of the pace of 2004’s Ray and $23.60 million away from matching the domestic performance of 2008’s Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour.

Paramount’s Paranormal Activity held steady in second, but experienced a notable daily decline for the fourth consecutive day. The R-rated horror film grossed $0.90 million for the day, which was down 20 percent from Tuesday and down 38 percent from last Wednesday (when it was playing in 459 fewer locations). Paranormal Activity had a tremendous run throughout October, but is clearly slowing down quickly in the days after Halloween. The 41-day gross for Paranormal Activity stands at $87.85 million, placing it $12.15 million away from joining the $100 million club.

Law Abiding Citizen remained in third place with $0.73 million. That represented a 19 percent slide from Tuesday and a healthy 19 percent decrease from last Wednesday. The Overture release starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler has grossed a better than expected $53.90 million through 20 days and is in good shape to experience another solid hold over the weekend.

Universal’s Couples Retreat was up one spot from Tuesday to finish in fourth with $0.59 million. The Vince Vaughn vehicle experienced one of the day’s better holds among wide releases as it was down 14 percent from Tuesday and down only 9 percent from last Wednesday. Couples Retreat has grossed $88.89 million through 27 days, placing it 17 percent behind the pace of 2006’s The Break-Up.

Where the Wild Things Are was down one spot to round out Wednesday’s top five with $0.51 million. The Spike Jonze directed film from Warner Bros. was down 29 percent from both Tuesday and last Wednesday. Where the Wild Things Are experienced a sharper daily decrease from Tuesday than films aimed at adults, but didn’t fall as harshly as either Astro Boy (down 47 percent) or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (down 53 percent).

BOXOFFICE.com's predictions for the weekend can be read here.

A Different Side of War

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:16:54 -0800

Another war movie is coming to theaters this weekend—duck!

War films, particularly those dealing with aspects of the Iraq War, have crashed and burned at the box office with alarming regularity.

Stop-Loss. In the Valley of Elah. Lions for Lambs.

So Hollywood decided to throw audiences a curveball. The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney and Kevin Spacey, tells the true story of a CIA effort to use paranormal powers on the battlefield. And yes, soldiers do stare at goats in the process.

Hezekiah Lewis, a director and film professor at Villanova’s School of Communication, says audiences want a twist on the modern war-related film.

“We need a different outlet, a different take,” Lewis says, which helps explain why a film like Goats got greenlit.

Even a film like the upcoming drama The Messenger, which features the soldiers asked to inform families that their loved ones have died on the battlefield, represents a glimmer of hope for Hollywood’s attempt at reflecting war.

More character driven stories, as opposed to high impact, explosion-filled affairs, stand a better chance at moving audiences en masse, Lewis says.

Part of the problem stems from the nature of modern war. Even the most optimistic audiences can’t see an end to the War on Terror any time soon, nor to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s hard to tell if we will get that sense of closure,” adds Lewis, something that makes telling war stories on film all the more challenging.

Christopher Sharrett, professor of communication and film studies at Seton Hall University, says it’s still too soon to make a successful movie that directly confronts the modern wars.

“I think this particular war is so unpopular and so close to home that films concerning it aren’t digestible as of now,” Sharrett says. “Maybe in five years [it will be].”

One way to approach war movies is to do so from a more generic anti-authoritative vantage point, he says. Consider In the Loop a moderately successful indie film from earlier this year that mocked the military power structure rather than any one given conflict.

Films that aren’t anchored in the crisis of the presence moment that avoid directly showing a loss of life have a better chance of thriving, he says.

It helps that a film like Goats is set partly during the Vietnam War, which allows for a measure of distance to today's headlines, he says, adding it stops people from agonizing over the present. Hollywood is likely better off sticking to films containing symbols and metaphors of current foreign policy matters rather than directly engaging them, he says.

Sharrett says it’s hard to predict if The Men Who Stare at Goats will resonate with audiences—or if enough people will be able to see it.

“A lot of it depends on distribution,” he says. “Given it’s a comedy with popular stars it may do fairly well, like Burn After Reading.”

Screenvision Renews Long-Term Agreement with Hogan Communications

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:08:41 -0800

New York, N.Y. – Screenvision, the leading innovator in cinema advertising, announced today it has renewed its long-term agreement with Hogan Communications, a media and marketing company targeting the college market. Under the agreement, Screenvision will continue to represent national and regional cinema advertising sales for Hogan’s 397 college campus-based screens while Hogan will continue to produce and distribute its cinema preshow, “Preview Theater,” in which the Screenvision-sold ads will appear. Screenvision will also continue to have the rights to conduct certain on-campus promotional activities on behalf of its advertisers, including advance screenings, product sampling, tabling and product demonstration activities and consumer research.

“Our continued relationship with Hogan Communications enables Screenvision to have a strong presence in the college arena,” said Darryl Schaffer, Executive Vice President, Exhibitor Relations, Screenvision. “This enables us to reach our key demo, young adults 18 to 24, in a very robust way.”

“The Screenvision sales force is best placed to represent our circuit of university theatres, both from a national ad sales perspective and niche marketing perspective,” said Michael Hogan, Hogan Communications. “Because of this, we’re thrilled to maintain our partnership and look forward to watching as national advertisers continue to focus on reaching out to our community of consumers – college students.”

The college network’s 397 cinema screens are distributed across 199 cities nationwide, and include coverage in top 10 DMAs such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.

'Clueless' Director Preps Vampire Comedy

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:06:42 -0800

Source: Bloody Disgusting

Parlay Films has just locked in international distribution rights to Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless director Amy Heckerling's new project Vamps.

The project, also written by Heckerling, follows two modern vampire women living it up in New York City, before a sudden turn of events forces them to choose between love and immortality. Krysten Ritter, who recently appeared in Confessions of a Shopaholic, is already signed to play one of the leads, and Ben Stiller's Red Hour Films is producing.

Heckerling's last project, I Could Never Be Your Woman (starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd) was intended as a theatrical release, but was unceremoniously yanked and released direct to video by its distributor in the United States. The film managed to earn $9.5 million in foreign territories. Vamps is scheduled to start shooting in March 2010.

Former Muvico Execs Lauch Paragon Entertainment

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:46:53 -0800

JUPITER, FL — Three Muvico Theatres executives have joined forces to launch Paragon Entertainment. Michael F. Whalen, Jr., Muvico’s former CEO; Michael Wilson, former SVP of Development and Hank Lightstone, former COO. Paragon will focus on developing, owning, operating, and managing movie theaters. Paragon will also pursue a strategy of retrofitting existing smaller theaters as well retrofitting existing retail space that has become available in. Such retrofits and upgrades would include stadium seating, digital projection via its relationship with Sony Electronics, high-end interactive arcades, and bowling.

“There exist tremendous opportunities in the entertainment space to redefine the movie-going and the entertainment experience while capitalizing on the unbalanced supply and demand for retail space,” commented Whalen. “We plan on providing a differentiated customer experience to our guests and work with landlords to find solutions to increase mall traffic and fill excess space. Most of all, I am honored to be working with my two best friends, men whom I respect and who have decades of experience in the motion picture industry”.

Paragon currently has plans to open three theatres in 2010. The first theater is in CocoWalk (Miami). The site at CocoWalk was operated for many years by AMC but will now see a $4 million upgrade to include stadium seating, high-definition digital projection with 3D, all reserved VIP seating, two lounge auditoria, a bar/restaurant concept, and valet car service. “We are excited to be part of the revitalization of CocoWalk and we plan on creating the finest movie-going experience in Miami,” noted Whalen. The theater will be branded a Muvico Theater under a licensing agreement between Paragon and Muvico.

Paragon, via its strategic relationship with Splitsville, will open a 70,000 sq. foot entertainment center in Fredericksburg, VA in late March 2010. The theater portion, branded Muvico, will have 12 high-definition digital screens, with 3 of them including Premier VIP seating for 21 and over serving cocktails and food. The luxury bowling facility will have 16 lanes of bowling with Splitsville’s signature gourmet restaurant. “Our concept with Splitsville will create an entertainment destination that will draw people from a 15 to 20 mile radius,” said Wilson. “We are excited about opening a state-of-the-art theater and luxury bowling restaurant that should expand movie going admissions by more than 50% in this market.”

Paragon will also open a luxury 7-screen theater at Block 37 in downtown Chicago in mid-2010. The theater will be branded Muvico to capitalize on Muvico’s brand name in the Chicago market where it operates a luxury theater in Rosemont, IL. Paragon has formed a relationship with a well-known restaurateur and will feature a signature restaurant. To drive greater frequency, Paragon will launch a loyalty club, which will have grant members access to exclusive screening invitations, advanced ticket sales and other benefits. “We look forward to providing the most unique moviegoing experience in Chicago. Our concept will redefine the whole ‘dinner and a movie’ experience,” noted Lightstone.

Paragon is based in Jupiter, FL and has plans to work closely with Frank Entertainment Companies in the future. “I have an immense amount of respect for Bruce Frank and we see the world of theater exhibition and entertainment the same way,” said Whalen. “The world of theater exhibition is changing rapidly with the advent of alternative content and digital projection. There is going to be less movie product over the next several years with shorter runtimes in theaters. The days of building and operating 24- and 30-screen movie theaters are gone and we need to create entertainment destinations for our patrons that do more that just exhibit movies and serve popcorn.”

Depp Eyes the Volatile 'Tourist'

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:22:32 -0800

Source: Variety

The Tourist has become one of the more fickle major projects in Hollywood as, following the entrance of Angelina Jolie and the subsequent exiting of Sam Worthington and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, another A-lister has entered into negotiations to star in the thriller--Johnny Depp. The project, with no director yet attached, is still moving forward toward a February start date.

Though Depp isn't quite at the status he used to be, the idea of a Depp-and-Jolie toplined film could mean the biggest blockbuster this side of Dark Knight. No word yet how this possible casting would effect Depp's other projects, like the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Next year, Depp is set to star as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland in March, as well as a reprise of his Fear and Loathing Hunter S. Thompson role in The Rum Diary.

Howards End (Blu-ray)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:53:57 -0800

At a glance, James Ivory’s Howards End is a slow, emotionally monotone work, though further reflection disqualifies these criticisms and paints the film as deliberate and free of melodrama. Its pace is reflective and Ivory’s visual proach reads as an emulation of its novel origin. Distinctly a period piece (turn of the century England), Howards End aims to evoke the mood of an era rather than deconstruct its social foibles. Commentaries on class and gender issues exist, but are at times clunky and overstated. This is a film that works best in its subtle operations, namely in its rejection of the histrionic and its fleeting character focus. As people do in life, characters fade in and out of the narrative conscience, living their own lives abroad—so to speak—and coming back into picture only when their affairs parallel the story’s concerns.

The story is that of three families—the well-to-do Wilcoxs, the middle-class Schlegels, and the working poor Basts—and the dynamic that results from their varying social locations. The three families are a bit obvious in their representation of class, though the chaotic interaction at the base of the story’s structure does well in downplaying the obvious. The Wilcoxs and Schlegels are already acquainted when the story opens and a romantic entanglement ensues between Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox (Helena Bonham Carter and Joseph Bennett); a narrative movement that is quickly discarded. Rather than dwell on the emotional penance of young love gone awry, the film uses this ostensibly crucial moment as a reference point for future cross-family relations. It becomes an event that’s all but lost in time, only recalled out of etiquette. The movie is built around relationships such as this, and aims to illustrate how incident strengthens or weakens our associations, but without instantaneous certainty.

Though the world of Howards End is one that extends beyond what is captured on film—implications about characters’ off screen activities are abound—one player in particular is never far from sight or mind. Margaret “Meg” Schlegel (Emma Thompson) plays a family ambassador of sorts, hobnobbing with the Wilcox clan and extending charitable thoughts to the Basts. She can be defined as matriarchal, as she puts moral dignity and gracious posturing ahead of her own wants to carry on the good family name. Margaret’s concern is that her siblings be afforded the social opportunities needed for upward mobility, provided they’re interested. Though she never goes as far as forcing behavior on sister Helen or brother Tibby (Adrian Ross Magenty), Meg often scoffs at their robust conduct, especially when it contradicts what their name has grown to stand for: progressive and educated social realists. However, exposure to the Wilcoxs means exposure to a different— dare I say better—way of living. Meg becomes fascinated, if not infatuated with the Wilcox lifestyle, though this stems more from curiosity than compliance. She becomes an observer of their world, and is moved by the premium put on tradition. Also of importance is the family estate Howards End, which speaks to the power of symbolic sentimentality. As the story unfolds, this property becomes more and more of an issue—specifically when the question of its rightful ownership arises and what “giving up” the house would mean to the Wilcoxs. These musings on assets are pertinent and establish a cross-class link between the families. With this association established, the movie goes on to make passing comments about the gender and class differences of the time. Although this does well in defining the cinematic world, it’s ultimately of little relevance elsewhere. Surely, some of the film’s issues are universal, but the entire thing comes across as tedious in its era-anchoring. The reality of Howards End is beautiful and appropriate; it’s just not very interesting.

Transfer

Most of the film's deliberate pace is due to Ivory's obsession of visual establishment, and this gorgeous transfer from the Criterion Collection all but justifies his lens' longing. Shots that linger on flora and fauna are nuanced in coloration and articulations between varying hues are subtle, yet distinct. The relatively pale skin of the actors can be chalked up to period realization, and only makes the greens of foliage look all the more brilliant. Film grain is strong, but not distracting. Interior and especially exterior shots are handled well and help recreate the mood of a bygone era. Compositionally, the movie focuses more on environment than actor and the wandering camera seems to beckon for a narrator. One doesn't come, naturally, as Ivory's vision is sufficiently descriptive. The world he creates is one that speaks for itself and, thanks to Criterion, now speaks clearer than ever.

As impressive as the image quality is, it isn't as immersive as the new audio track. The attention put into tweaking even the most minute rumblings must have been great, as the result is incredible. The emphasis on music and sound is as tonally evocative as the visuals and only underscores an already lavish cinematic world. Though not an old film by any stretch, Howards End certainly benefits from the format's potential for poetic imagery and audial decor.

Fallen Idol: The Yuri Gagarin Conspiracy

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:42:33 -0800

Fallen Idol: The Yuri Gagarin Conspiracy is a documentary that examines state secrecy during the space race in Soviet Russia. The film attempts to show that Gagarin, celebrated as the heroic first man in orbit, lived a life of deception that had tragic consequences. The thesis that another Soviet was first in space and the extensive government cover-up is presented as an absorbing mystery. However, because of the lack of onscreen eyewitnesses and unavailable documentation, the film lacks definitive proof. The film’s subjects of the cold war and space exploration should draw a limited documentary audience.

Elliot Gould, who also serves as oncamera host, narrates the film. His cinematic connection to the topic is that he appeared in the in the 1978 Capricorn One, about the falsification of a space mission. Gould wonders if life is imitating art or the other way around.

The Soviet government led by Premier Nikita Khrushchev saw accomplishments in the space race as a route to global domination and influence. Secrecy was rigorously maintained and set-backs were hidden from the public. Newsreel images and comments from historians and Khrushchev’s son, Sergei, give a good sense of the historical period.

In 1961, Vladimir Ilyushin was the top Soviet test pilot. He had set speed and altitude records and received the nation’s highest honor, the Hero of the Soviet Union Medal. This film presents him as the actual first man in space and, because of a severe malfunction, his capsule crashed and Ilyushin was seriously injured. The recounted events and mystery help the film maintain interest, but actual verification is not provided. To suppress evidence of any mission failure, Fallen Idol shows how Soviet newspapers reported Ilyushin was injured in a car accident and then recuperated in China. The filmmakers find it incomprehensible that a highly decorated hero would be sent for medical treatment to China, a nation with which the USSR was on the verge of war—this analysis seems believable.

An engineer reportedly monitored Ilyushin’s flight at a US Air Force tracking station. Any potential tracking station documentation remained classified. The film states that US security threatened the engineer with jail time if he spoke oncamera, adding a very odd American aspect to the film’s conspiracy theories.

Yuri Gagarin, with far less flight experience than Ilyushin, was quickly selected for the next mission. After he successfully orbited the earth in April 1961, Gagarin became a celebrated hero and his birthday became a national holiday. The best part of the documentary deals with the tension in Gagarin’s life afterward. Eventually, his smiling heroic façade covered up alcoholism and depression. Conditions worsened for Gagarin after Brezhnev, who lacked his predecessor’s interest in the space program, replaced Khrushchev. A Department of State Airgram mentions a public conflict between Gagarin and Brezhnev.

According to Fallen Idol, Gagarin became such a public embarrassment that he was ”disposed of” in a plane crash from which his body was never found. Ironically Ilyushin led the investigation, which found no conspiracy. One of the producers reports that Ilyushin had agreed to speak oncamera, but that in the presence of a “translator,” he changed his mind. While the film remains thought provoking, it again lacks concrete evidence to substantiate its claims.

Distributor: Indican Pictures
Directors: Denny Hooten and Sam Oldham
Screenwriters: Elliott H. Haimoff, Diane Tishkoff, and Barbara Sharp
Producers: Diane Tishkoff, and Barbara Sharp
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 90 min.
Release date: October 2 ltd.

Galifianakis Circles 'Puss in Boots'

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:46:56 -0800

Source: THR

The underground-comedian-turned-A-lister Zach Galifianakis is in negotiations to play the role of Humpty Dumpty in the upcoming Shrek spinoff, Puss in Boots. Galifianakis would be joining Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek in the film, which is currently slated for a November 4, 2011 release.

Galifianakis is one of 2009's more bizarre success stories. After the wild popularity of The Hangover (not to mention its $461 million worldwide), the cult icon has become one of Hollywood's hottest commodities. The Puss in Boots producers at DreamWorks are no doubt hoping he can carry this star power over to 2011, which, given the long docket of films Galifianakis is accruing, is more than possible. A spot in the star-studded Shrek franchise would only solidify his star status.

This time next year, Galifianakis will be re-teaming with Todd Phillips for Due Date alongside Robert Downey, Jr. The actor-comedian is also set for next July's Dinner for Schmucks, as well as the sequel to The Hangover for Summer 2011.

Boyle Finds Next Project

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:20:45 -0800

Source: Variety

After winning the Best Director Oscar for his work on Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle has found his new project. The director will take on 127 Hours, which deals with the life of mountaineer Aron Ralston. The project will mark Boyle's fifth collaboration with Fox Searchlight. No actor has signed on to star in the lead role yet.

Slumdog Millionaire was a $365 million worldwide hit that went on to win eight Oscars.

Proof of the Existence of God (An Occasional Series)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:09:29 -0800

Just heard from the good folks at Warner Archive that the transplendent 1980 concert film Gilda Live -- starring the unutterably adorable Gilda Radner and directed by Mike Nichols -- is at long last making an appearance on DVD.

This is wonderful news on all sorts of levels, but one of them is it means that, finally, you can watch a high quality digital version of perhaps the greatest song and live musical performance of the 20th century.

I refer, of course, to Gilda's romp through Michael O'Donohue's "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals."

A rooster says "Good morning"
With a cock-a-doodle-doo
A horse's neigh is just his way
Of saying "How are you?"
A lion growls "hello" and owls ask
Why and where and "Hoo?"
May I suggest you get undressed
And show them your wazoo?

There's more to the song, of course (and please enjoy it here from an earlier incarnation on VHS).

Seriously, the film (shot in 1979) is a really terrific little capsule (guest stars include Letterman foil Paul Shaffer and the much-missed Father Guido Sarducci) of a wonderful moment in American comedy history. And of course Gilda is just so sweet and funny that it hurts; if you can watch the film without falling head over heels in love with her, you really need to have it looked at.

Bottom line: You can order Gilda Live -- and definitely should, immediately, assuming you have a soul -- over here.

You're welcome.

Twitter Box Office Update

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:48:01 -0800

Total tweets for November 6th Openers

Movie	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Total
A Christmas Carol	849	1,110	1,088		3,047
Men Who Stare At Goats	495	691	793		1,979
The Box	222	398	644		1,264
The Fourth Kind	515	752	873		2,140

A Christmas Carol led from the front again today but did see a slight decrease from Tuesday's numbers. In terms of comparisons, the similarly targeted Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs also saw a slight decrease from Tuesday to Wednesday of 542 to 524 tweets as did Astro Boy with 409 to 355 tweets. I still think it is going to be close to Cloudy's 282 tweets per $1m Friday gross, but Carrey's name should push it slightly higher to the 325 range.

Men Who Stare At Goats rose 102 to 793 tweets. By comparison, The Informant had 495, The Invention of Lying 436 and Law Abiding Citizen 702. All seems set for a ~625 ratio for Friday.

The Box once again had a nice percentage increase to reach 644 tweets. By comparison Pandorum had 337 tweets after Wednesday so its distancing itself from that. But, once again Warner Brothers had a Twitter promotion on artificially generating buzz for free take aways. That accounted for ~125 direct tweets. In addition, many of the tweets about this film have been either panning the premise/film itself or making innuendos about its name. Like all horrors it should have a nice boost on Thursday due to midnight showings buzz which will go a long way from raising its tweet count. I'm expecting a ratio of ~1,000 which is slightly lower than Saw VI and Zombieland (1,235 and 1,280 respectively) due to Diaz's appeal to older audiences.

The Fourth Kind came up with 873 tweets for Wednesday, up 121 tweets from Tuesday. Its daily jump from Tuesday was not that impressive compared to other films of its genre (both Saw VI and Zombieland were over 20%, as compared to 14% here).but Thursday's tweet increase will be the true test. I had it pegged for a mid teen weekend but its tweet count this week has not been as impressive as it had initially promised.

MPAA Seeks FCC Approval for Transmission of First Run Movies Directly to Consumers

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:07:17 -0800

Washington, D.C. – In a filing today with the Federal Communications Commission, the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) reinforced the benefits of allowing studios the option of sending movies fresh from the box office to tens of millions of American households.

“Many of us love movies, but we just can’t make it to the theater as often as we’d like. That is especially true for parents of young children, rural Americans who live far from the multiplex and people with disabilities that keep them close to home,” MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman said. “Having the added option to enjoy movies in a more timely fashion at home would be a liberating new choice.”

In its filing, which was in response to letters of opposition filed by the group Public Knowledge, the MPAA said: “grant of the waiver would for the first time allow millions of consumers to view high-value, high-definition theatrical films during an early release window that is not available today. MPAA has explained that release of this high-value content as part of an earlier window, especially with respect to movies released for home viewing close to or even during their initial theatrical run, necessarily requires the highest level of protection possible through use of SOC.”

SOC, or selectable output control technology, would allow televisions with digitally secure interfaces to receive first-run, high-definition content from a cable or satellite provider. Using SOC protects content because it essentially disables non-secure, analog outputs to avoid illegal circumvention and distribution of copyrighted material. These outputs would be disabled ONLY with respect to the proposed new content, and this technology would NOT have any impact whatsoever on the ability of existing devices to receive all of the content that they get today. Consumers will continue to have access to everything they have today, including DVDs, Netflix, etc.

The MPAA filing noted: “By Public Knowledge’s odd reckoning, however, no consumer-oriented technological breakthrough ever could be introduced to American homes unless and until every single American home had access to the same opportunity at the same moment in time. That is a recipe for holding every innovation hostage until the last consumer adopts a new technology.

“Under Public Knowledge’s approach, the Commission would have taken decades to permit television stations to broadcast in color, since millions of American homes already had purchased black-and-white sets when color broadcasts were introduced in the 1950s. Indeed, whenever innovative technologies bring consumers new and better opportunities to media content, there is always a lag between when early adopters take advantage of these opportunities and when they become ubiquitous.”

Glickman added: “I, like most movie-goers believe the best way to enjoy a movie is to go to the theater with friends and share a communal laugh or adventure together. But I also believe there is ample room for additional choices that satisfy consumer demand to enjoy movies in diverse new ways. If allowed by the FCC, I believe this new choice will be just one of many exciting innovations to come that benefit consumers and sustain the future of this unique creative medium.”

Uncertainty

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:55:45 -0800

The random nature of fate gets a workout in Scott McGehee and David Siegel's Uncertainty. The filmmakers behind Suture, The Deep End and Bee Season return with a drama in which a young couple's flip of a coin leads to very different destinies. The conceit is not entirely successful, but with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins playing the young couple and a tale that offers drama lovers plenty to chew on, careful positioning could well develop Uncertainty into that increasingly elusive rarity, the indie hit.

On a hot 4th of July morning, Bobby Thompson (Gordon-Levitt) and Kate Montero (Collins) are strolling along the Brooklyn Bridge, trying to decide their future. They are very much in love but the relationship is at a crossroads. Bobby suggests flipping a coin. In the universe that McGehee and Siegel establish, what hinges on that toss is not just a romantic reckoning, but altered destiny.

In cross-cut fashion, the drama explores two separate fates for the couple. In one, they drive to Kate's family's house in Brooklyn for an Independence Day barbecue. In the other, they declare their own independence by deciding to skip the family celebration and spend the day in Manhattan instead. That situation turns explosive when they discover a lost Treo in the back of the cab and Bobby tries to do the right thing by getting the PDA back to its owner. Multiple bad guys want that Treo, and before they quite realize what is happening, Bobby and Kate are on the run.

Of the two stories, the first is certainly banal, at least on the surface. Kate has a difficult relationship with her mother, Sylvia (Assumpta Serna), who does not approve of her eldest daughter's sometimes-hardscrabble dancer's life. Now Sylvia's angry because younger daughter, Sophie (Olivia Thirlby), has announced that she intends to follow her sister's lead into the arts by becoming an actress. Kate already has a lot on her mind, and now she finds herself being pulled back into family trauma.

The crime story has more action, suspense, and melodrama. It is more exciting, but Tommy and Kate do not just appear to be living an alternative fate, they also seem like completely different people. The Brooklyn Tommy and Kate may enjoy a more mundane 4th of July, but those characters are so much warmer. This is a couple that rescues a stray dog they find wandering too close to a busy street and are big-hearted enough to simply adopt it. In contrast, the Tommy and Kate of the crime saga are colder and not above trying to manipulate a dangerous situation to their own ends—and not quite smart enough to realize when they are in over their heads.

Director of photography Rain Li, a protégé of the great Hong Kong cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and her crew mostly employ handheld cameras, a strategy that lends the film an energetic, sometimes vérité feel, while capturing the vibrancy and sweltering heat of a New York summers day. McGehee and Siegel chose their locations wisely, especially in Manhattan's Chinatown where much of the action takes place. A rooftop chase highlights these scenes in a thrilling scene that would not be out of place in some far grittier ’70s era policier.

Gordon-Levitt adds another memorable character to his growing gallery of exquisite performances and Collins is a perfect match. If the stories are not quite equal in terms of quality, they are at least always fascinating, a certainty in Uncertainty's favor. After the disappointment of Bee Season, even with its flaws, this represents a welcome return to form for McGehee and Siegel, gorgeously shot, well directed, and idiosyncratic.

Distributor: IFC Films
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lynn Collins and Assumpta Serna
Directors/Screenwriters/Producer: Scott McGehee and David Siegel
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 101 min.
Release date: November 13 NY

Turning Green

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:43:19 -0800

Turning Green is one of many in a market flooded with coming of age stories by up-and-coming directors looking to recapture the glory days of minimal responsibility and maximum possibility, but writer/directors Michael Aimette and John G. Hoffman still manage to squeeze some charm out of the overwhelmingly familiar. With the help of first-time performer Donal Gallery, this mix of gangster drama and quirky comedy boasts a modest charm that should appeal to young men around same age as the 16 year old lead character, despite a lack of focus and familiar twists.

James Powers (Gallery) hates Ireland. He spends his days dreaming of America and all the ways he and his younger brother Pete (Killian Morgan) can make some money and leave it all behind. Ultimately, James's solution is Bob the Bookie (Alessandro Nivola), who sends James around to pick up the cash from his betting customers and otherwise report back, so that Bob might send Bob the Breaker (Timothy Hutton) to rough them up should they fail to pay on time. One of the Bookie's customers is James' friend Tom (Colm Meaney), who doesn't have the dough the day James shows up, and James lies on Tom's behalf. When Bob discovers the lie, he demands that Tom or James pay the money back in three weeks, forcing James to hatch a plan.

On a trip to London, James discovers a corner newsstand selling porno magazines, which would be illegal in Ireland until the 1990's, and he makes a deal with the manager to have some of the magazines mailed over so he can sell them to the locals in order to pay off some of Tom's debt. However, the business proves to be far more profitable than James imagined, and soon he's secretly saving for America on the side and inadvertently affecting the Bookie's business. This section, which makes up approximately the second third of the film, is the most appealing, playing like a cross between Adventureland and Zack and Miri Make a Porno, if it were written by Guy Ritchie. Really, the magazine-selling plotline is enough to sustain the whole movie, without the looming threat of gangster violence hanging over the film.

As James, Gallery is funny and believable without trying too hard to be charming, and he plays well off of everyone in the movie, especially Morgan as the younger brother and Meaney as the grizzled, pseudo-father figure. Meaney's scenes are all-too-brief, probably totaling less than 15 minutes of the film, and it's a shame he doesn't get more to do. The flipside of this is Hutton, who is fine as Bob the Breaker but just not all that important in the grand scheme of the movie; whoever got him top billing deserves a raise.

A sense of fear accompanies the third act, with the possibility that the film will kill all of its goodwill with an overly dark ending seeming more and more likely. Luckily, while the conclusion Aimette and Hoffman have devised is not as good as the film's best moments, it doesn't ruin them retroactively. Taking Green is a pleasant little "rainy day" movie with some multicultural appeal, worth a look for anyone disinterested in what's playing at the local multiplex.

Distributor: New Films International
Cast: Timothy Hutton, Colm Meaney, Alessandro Nivola and Donal Gallery
Directors/Screenwriters: Michael Aimette and John G. Hoffmann
Producers: Robert Malkani and Andrew Charas
Genre: Dramedy
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 85 min.
Release date: November 6 NY/LA/BOS/CHI

Storm

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:30:27 -0800

The courtroom has been a staple of some classic films, but Hans-Christian Schmid’s drama is not one of them. Dealing with war crimes in Bosnia and flitting back and forth between there and the courts in The Hague and Berlin, the film spreads itself too thinly and, despite the subject matter, fails to grip. One can expect numbers to be small.

When prosecutor Hannah Maynard (a feisty performance from Kerry Fox) is at a tribunal in The Hague she attempts to convince a potential witness to testify in a crucial case against the man accused of deporting and killing Bosnian-Muslim civilians in a small town now known as the Republika Srpska. Quickly she becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of subterfuge and counter-claim.

The prosecutor is determined to make Goran Duric (Drazen Kühn) pay for his crimes. When one of her key witnesses, Hajdarevic (Kresimir Mikic), breaks down in court, eventually committing suicide, Maynard decides she must go to Bosnia to find more evidence and witnesses or risk defeat.

In the course of her inquiries, Maynard uncovers a much worse crime perpetrated by Duric. Her dilemma is to find someone to testify to a rape and murder that happened in a hotel. She manages to convince the sister of a witness, Mira, (Anamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) to exorcise her demons and testify in The Hague.

Duric's defense team attempts to have Mira's testimony disallowed and Maynard finds that the members of the judiciary unexpectedly support their efforts.

Maynard’s struggle is only just beginning … and on a much wider arena than she ever imagined.

Hans-Christian Schmid marshals his material on an epic canvas whereas the subject might have been better suited to a more intense and contained treatment.

With a sinewy performance from Fox and an affecting one from Marinca, as well as proficient technical credits, Hans-Christian Schmid occasionally allows the power of the story to win—though but a simpler framework would have served it better.

Distributor: Film Movement
Cast: Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane, Rolf Lassgård and Alexander Fehling
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Screenwriter: Bernd Lange and Hans-Christian Schmid
Producers:  Britta Knoller and Hans-Christian Schmid
Genre: Drama; English, German, Bosnian and Serbian-languages, subtitled
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 105 min.
Release date: October 30 NY

Mammoth

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:22:08 -0800

For his first English language sortie Swedish director Lukas Moodysson tackles the theme of globalization—and falls distinctly flat. The treatment is heavy going and pretentious, making it unlikely for him to find favor even among supporters of the cause. Prospects in the box office would seem to be fairly limited.

His heart and concerns may be in the right place but director Lukas Moodysson makes heavy weather of the theme of globalization. His own description of the film (“it is about how all of us on this planet are interconnected with each other”) is enough to give pause. There is much more of this sort of glib sermonizing in store.

His main focus revolves around a successful New York couple, Leo (Gael García Bernal from the The Science of Sleep and The Motorcycle Diaries) and Ellen (Michelle Williams of Brokeback Mountain fame). Leo is the creator of a booming website and has stumbled into a world of money and big decisions. Ellen is a dedicated emergency surgeon who devotes her long shifts to saving lives.

Their 8 year old daughter, Jackie (Sophie Nyweide), spends most of her time with her Filipino nanny, Gloria (Marife Necesito). This is a situation that makes Ellen start to question her priorities. When Leo travels to Thailand on business, he unwittingly sets off a series of events that will have dramatic consequences for everyone as he discovers another downside of globalization—the sex trade.

Moodysson, who won acclaim for his 1998 film Show Me Love and Lilya 4-ever in 2002, uses such contrasting images such as a stuffed refrigerator full of fruit and food and the luxury lifestyle of New York, with the poverty and deprivations of the Philippines and Thailand.

It is all too simplistic and obvious and increasingly the preachy tone becomes irritating. At its premiere showing at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2009, the reception was decidedly frosty which does not bode well for its effect on audiences.

Distributor: IFC
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams, Sophie Nyweide and Thomas McCarthy Director/Screenwriter: Lukas Moodysson
Producer: Lars Jönsson
Genre: Drama; Thai and Tagalog-language, subtitled
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 120 min
Release date: November 20 NY

‘This Is It’ Wins on Election Day

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:46:02 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It rounded out its first week in theatres with another first place finish on Tuesday. Sony’s concert documentary grossed $2.67 million for the day, which was up a healthy 9 percent from Monday. That is a good sign for the film, though it should be noted that a number of films (especially those aimed at family audiences) experienced strong daily increases on Tuesday, which is traditionally the case on Election Day (even in off-year elections). This Is It has now grossed $39.57 million through seven days. While that is below expectations, the film is holding up well thus far and is also performing much better internationally where Michael Jackson has remained extremely popular over the years.

Paranormal Activity remained in second place with $1.13 million. However, Paramount’s low-budget horror blockbuster was down 5 percent from Monday (making it one of just two wide releases to experience a daily slide on Tuesday). After displaying tremendous holding power throughout October, Paranormal Activity has experienced significant slow down during each of the past three days. Paranormal Activity was down 34 percent from last Tuesday, which suggests that the film could see a sizable decline over the weekend. With that said, Paranormal Activity has already grossed $86.94 million to date.

Law Abiding Citizen finished in third with $0.90 million. The Overture release starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler held up well on Tuesday, as it was up 16 percent from Monday and down 23 percent from last Tuesday. Law Abiding Citizen has grossed $53.16 million through 19 days of release and could see another solid hold this upcoming weekend. Overture will look to follow-up the success of Law Abiding Citizen with the release of their next film, The Men Who Stare at Goats, on Friday.

Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are was up one spot to place in fourth with $0.71 million. The adaptation of the popular children’s book was up 23 percent from Monday, which was a better daily increase than most films aimed at adults experienced, but a smaller increase than those experienced by both Astro Boy (up 50 percent) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (up 57 percent). Where the Wild Things Are has grossed $63.94 million in 19 days, but has yet to double its $32.70 million opening weekend gross.

Couples Retreat was down one spot from Monday to round out the day’s top five. The PG-13 comedy from Universal grossed $0.68 million, which was up 15 percent from Monday and down a slim 15 percent from last Tuesday. Couples Retreat has grossed $88.30 million to date, placing it just $11.70 million away from reaching the $100 million milestone.

Aykroyd Joins 'Burke and Hare'

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:11:12 -0800

Source: Bloody-Disgusting

Comedy star Dan Aykroyd has signed onto John Landis' dark horror-comedy Burke and Hare, alongside the previously cast Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, Star Trek) and David Tennant (just wrapping up his stint as the lead on "Doctor Who") as Burke and Hare, respectively.

The film marks Aykroyd and Landis' seventh collaboration, the most notable being The Blues Brothers (and its sequel) and Trading Places (with Eddie Murphy). It also marks Landis' first theatrical fictional feature since Blues Brothers 2000 in 1998 (Susan's Plan, also known as Dying to Get Rich, was also planned for theaters in 1998, but ultimately premiered on video). The plot follows two 19th-century grave-robbers who scheme to get rich selling cadavers to an Edinburgh medical school.

Blues Brothers 2000 was a theatrical flop, earning only $13.9 million in the US against a $28 million budget. No doubt Landis, Pegg, Tennant and Aykroyd are hoping for a warmer reception when Burke and Hare opens in 2010.

Sundance Introducing 'Sundance Festival USA'

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:57:57 -0800

On Thursday, January 28th, 2010, the Sundance Film Festival will debut a new program called "Sundance Film Festival USA", which will bring one night of Sundance films (and a Sundance filmmaker) to eight cities in the United States.

The participating theaters are:
* Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
* Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA
* BAM, Brooklyn, NY
* Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL
* Downtown Independent, Los Angeles
* The Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN
* Sundance Cinemas Madison, Madison, WI
* Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, San Francisco, CA

The specific films and filmmakers chosen for each event have yet to be selected, but will be chosen from the Sundance 2010 roster and announced in December. Tickets will be available through each theater's box office. A similar event will be occurring in Park City, where the traditional Sundance Film Festival is held, where directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross will premiere their documentary The Shock Doctrine, followed by a Q&A with the directors, journalist Naomi Klein, festival founder Robert Redford and more.

Weinsteins Trying to Get Their Name Back

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:20:03 -0800

Source: Studio Briefing

Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who coined the name Miramax after the names of their parents (Miriam and Max) are reportedly in negotiations with Disney's Bob Iger to get the name back.

Disney recently shuttered Miramax's New York headquarters, dismissed the president and drastically reduced staff. When the Weinsteins left Disney in 2004, they tried to buy the name then too, but former Disney CEO Michael Eisner refused to sell it to them. If the Weinsteins are successful, they will ditch "The Weinstein Company" name and rebrand their studio Miramax.

The Weinstein Company has suffered through a string of flops, but they recently scored a much-needed hit with Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, which became the director's highest-earning movie (unadjusted for inflation). The studio's next release is the Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road, opening November 25th, but given the film's dark tone, it's likely the brothers are pinning more hope on Rob Marshall's musical Nine to break through at the box office. The film, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard, is a musical take on Fellini's 8½, and it will open wide on Christmas Day.

Worth Digesting

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:25:41 -0800

I sincerely hope that Food, Inc., a Magnolia-released doc that lands on DVD this week, is able to capture that ever-elusive buzz it needs to end up on the Best Documentary nomination list at the Oscars this year.

Director/producer Robert Kenner has made a very fair and balanced look at the food industry. I walked into Food, Inc. earlier this year expecting a resounding endorsement of a vegetarian lifestyle, since that's what many films or articles about the problems plaguing the food industry ultimately end up concluding. Instead, Kenner delivered a pratical, realistic look at why meat doesn't have to come from questionable sources. Kenner is smart enough to know that most people aren't going to change the way they eat, and as a result he mostly sets his sights on the companies that use extremely questionable techniques to put food on America's table. He goes straight to the source. It works.

I challenge anybody who sees Kenner's doc to even think about eating at McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King or any other fast food joint ever again. Like most people in my generation, I was raised on that junk. I haven't touched it since seeing Food, Inc.

Food Inc. is certainly a better film than Capitalism: A Love Story, in which it felt like Michael Moore was just going through the motions as he slowly lapsed into a parody of himself. Food, Inc. also hit a lot closer to home than another one of this year's great docs, The Cove. Plus, Kenner's film certainly has a lot more to say than The September Issue, an entertaining look inside the offices of Vogue.

The Fourth Kind

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:10:36 -0800

Interspersed throughout The Fourth Kind, a Sci-fi thriller about a Nome, Alaska therapist and her patients' close encounters with extraterrestrials, there are snippets of an interview director Olatunde Osunsanmi purportedly conducted with the "real" Dr. Abigail Tyler. Watching Tyler in these excerpts, it is only too easy to come to the horrific conclusion that an end result of alien abduction is dull and lifeless hair. Unhappily, "dull and lifeless" is also an apt description of this excruciating Sci-fi thriller. Not even the presence of dependably quirky actors Elias Koteas and Will Patton in key supporting roles can inject any life into this flabby exercise. Sci-fi fans, particularly those with a yen for alien stories, might turn out opening weekend, but word of mouth should be brutal, dooming any chance of real box office success.

Star Milla Jovovich opens the drama to announce that what is about to unfold is "true" and that the movie contains actual footage of some of the events. The story, she concludes, is "disturbing." Anyone who believes any of that may be interested in purchasing a bridge that is for sale in Brooklyn—cheap!

Jovovich plays the recently widowed Dr. Tyler who is treating a series of patients for the same sleeping disorder. They all report seeing an owl outside their windows at the same time each night and some think that the owl might be inside their bedrooms staring down at them. All of them have fuzzy recollections and tremendous fear to go along with the insomnia, so Abigail turns to hypnosis to see if that can unlock her patients' memories. What she discovers seems to suggest that ill-mannered, probe-equipped space creatures have targeted citizens of Nome—and may be coming after Abigail and her household.

The entire story is ludicrous, from the aliens allegedly spouting Sumerian and saying things like "I am God" (according to the linguist that Abigail conveniently consults) to video recordings becoming distorted any time there is even a hint of an alien presence. Sheriff August (Patton) announces he’s going to arrest Abigail without ever even hinting what crime he thinks she has committed. Most ridiculous of all is that in one important area of her life, Abigail is clearly delusional and both the sheriff and her therapist, Dr. Ramos (Koteas), know it. Yet, apparently it does not occur to either one of them that maybe someone in her state really ought not to be seeing patients.

The wild improbability of the tale is not what ultimately dooms The Fourth Kind. The preposterous can be entertaining, but Onsunsanmi does not seem to have the slightest idea of how to tell a riveting—or even a slightly interesting—story. Composer Atli Örvarsson’s elegant score suggests building suspense, but that is undercut by the film's flaccid writing and flabby pacing. The press materials all insist that the tale, written by Onsunsanmi from a story he concocted with Terry Robbins, is based on real events. Well, considering the complete lack of drama, that's an easy out. Who knew alien abduction could be such a bore?

Distributor: Universal
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton and Olatunde Osunsanmi
Director/Screenwriter: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Producers: Paul Brooks, Joe Carnahan and Terry Robbins
Genre: Sci-fi/Thriller
Rating: PG-13 for violent/disturbing images, some terror, thematic elements and brief sexuality
Running time: 98 min.
Release Date: November 6, 2009

Reilly and Weaver Go for 'Rapids'

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:05:38 -0800

Source: Variety

John C. Riley and Sigourney Weaver have signed on to Cedar Rapids, the film which appears to have nothing to do with whitewater rafting (no doubt a disappointment to fans of John C. Reilley in The River Wild), a cast which will also include Anne Heche, Ed Helms and Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat. The comedy has already begun filming.

While Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant had a disappointing box office turnout, Reilley is still at the top of his game for comedies, and will no doubt be a huge draw for Cedar Rapids. The same would be difficult to argue for Weaver—for now. After Avatar releases in December, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest films of the year, Weaver has the opportunity to capitalize on some real renewed star power that can boost this film into the comedy stratosphere.

After Avatar, next year will also find Weaver in the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost-penned Paul, as well as Disney's You Again. Reilley, meanwhile, will be seen in The Extra Man alongside Paul Dano.

Gerard Butler Joins 'Coriolanus'

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:31:17 -0800

Source: THR

Gerard Butler has signed on to star in Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut Coriolanus, a modern version of Shakespeare's Roman tragedy. Butler will play Tullus Aufidius, commander of the Volscian army.

Coriolanus, which starts shooting in Serbia in March, already boasts an impressive cast, including William Hurt, Eddie Marsan, Jessica Chastain, Vanessa Redgrave and Fiennes himself.

Butler, who already graced the big screen in The Ugly Truth and Gamer this year, is arguably most famous for his role in 300 as an abdominal-baring Spartan. He can currently be seen in Law Abiding Citizen, which is now in theaters.

Mirren Sees 'Red'

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:20:35 -0800

Source: Variety

Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren has joined Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis in Summit's Red, a new espionage thriller that is set to hit theaters in November 2010.

Mirren has had mixed results at the box office since winning her Oscar for The Queen is 2007. While she did appear in the blockbuster National Treasure: Book of Secrets, she also had supporting roles in two duds: State of Play and Inkheart.

Mirren will be seen opposite Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy this fall in The Last Station, which focuses on the last year of Leo Tolstoy's life. There is already a considerable amount of Oscar buzz behind the project.

Great Lost Films of the Nineties (An Occasional Series): Special Germans Behaving Badly Edition

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:05:50 -0800

Sex. Murder. Money. More sex. You'd think a film reeking of all four of the preceeding would be a guaranteed crowd pleaser. But for some reason, the 1996 A Girl Called Rosemarie,
the smashing first (and as yet only) directorial effort from veteran producer Bernd Eichinger -- based on the most famous unsolved crime in postwar German history -- never connected with anybody but me, or so it seems.

Well, screw it -- I think it's a great flick.

The plot (as I summarized it in my review at the time):

When we first see Rosemarie Nitribitt (Nina Hoss) she's just another reform school strumpet, albeit one with American movie star looks. But Rosemarie has her eyes on the prize, in the form of rich industrialist Hartog (Heiner Lauterback); she becomes a comfortably kept woman, but Hartog won't dump his upper crust fiancé. Enter French businessman Fribert (the wonderfully oily Matthieu Carriere), with a proposition: He'll subsidize Rosemarie's life of luxury if she'll seduce Hartog's friends and business associates (movers and shakers all) and secretly tape their encounters. But when push comes to shove, Rosemarie balks; she refuses to give the tapes to Fribert and tries to blackmail Hartog into marriage (yes, she loves the big galoot, Hollywood style). Next day, she turns up strangled, and nobody busts a gut to find out who dunnit.

This is actually the second German screen version of the story. The 1958 Rosemary, released the year after Nitribitt's death, suggested that all her lovers had a literal hand in her death, a la Murder on the Orient Express. But Eichinger, working from a script cowritten with Uwe Wilhelm, has a more believable and realistic solution to the mystery; Rosemarie, he implies, was doomed from the start, not (as I said in my review) because she dared to rise above her station, but because for all her hard-earned street smarts she didn't understand that in a battle between you and the establishment, the smart money is on the establishment.

In any case, Eichinger stages the story as a vastly entertaining mix of hyper-intense Sirk-ian widescreen glamor and kitchen sink lower depths realism, and his deliciously pouty leading lady is beyond remarkable. Foss, as I also wrote at the time, can register more emotion with her eyebrows than anyone since Barbara Steele, and she seems to particularly enjoy the scene where she flashes a prospective john in a fancy hotel lobby from beneath a leopard skin coat. If this movie had been in English, she'd have been a superstar faster than you could say Sharon Stone.

Here's a minute of the opening -- all that's on YouTube, more's the pity -- to give you an idea of the film's simultaneously flamboyant and elegant visual style. And the similarly watchable Hoss, obviously.

Alas, the excellent Anchor Bay DVD version from a few years ago is out of print at the moment. But you should be able to find a used copy over here without much trouble, and it seems Netflix has it as well. Trust me -- it'll be worth the effort.

Act of God

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:03:27 -0800

Taking on natural phenomena and steering clear the science-for-dopes pitfalls or winded theological sermons is big league stuff. Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal proves herself a storm-chasing pro in Act of God, a doc that interlaces spectacular visuals with meaty chatter by various luminaries and laymen talking about life after being struck by lightning. Stewing on particulars—the how —is small news compared to examining why the emboldened club of 1-in-700,000 were hit and have since radically altered course. Baichwal chose to interview the latter camp and for that she’ll win over potential skeptics denouncing the work as a shocking flash rather than the riveting submission that it is. Expect the film to catch fire once it goes theatrical.

Author Paul Auster’s interview strategically narrates the film. Few can speak how they write; he is one of those few. At 14, he witnessed a biblical storm brewing at sleep-away camp. The story hammers home the sky’s scarring fury—even now. He reads aloud from his narrative, “It’s as if weapons materialized from the sky.” Auster admits that the moment when he, ducking under a fence, saw a boy blasted by a bolt has “deeply implanted in all the work I’ve done.” The “monumental” moment has found its way into his prose. As if the surge from that night is connected to every character and tale that has been bound and book-shelved.

If Auster has managed to master storytelling from terror, experimental musician Fred Frith is transfixed with sound. For a clinical study, Frith gets fitted for a latex helmet with a spaghetti bowl of wires plugged into a supercomputer while improvising with chopsticks and empty tuna cans strumming his electric guitar. He speaks with his music and it’s hardcore tempest reenactments with spiraling beginnings and whispering ends.

The film gets preachy with ex-infantryman Dannion Brinkley’s overtures about coming back from death after being struck. He’s a do-gooder—helps war vets die with honor and dignity. As he wanders around Las Vegas wearing Elvis-meets-Moses regalia he portrays himself to know both sides of the veil. In Cuba, Santeria-inspired clans parade and sacrifice chickens to appease Shango: the god of thunder and lightning. In a heavily Catholic-dominated sect, it’s compelling to see the faiths intermix without incident. Deep in a Mexican villa, a cross sits atop a mountain where lightning has struck several times. The summit is a resting place for two toddlers who were killed by a thunderbolt. Their undaunted mother is arrested by the sky’s power and turns to religion to make sense of the senseless. “Only He knows. I can’t argue with that,” head shaking, eyes welling.

The doc’s themes deal with both the physical and metaphysical questions behind lightning. Those that have been hit by charcoal-causing close encounter seem forever lit by it; here dogma and science friction indirectly with each other. Paul Auster advocates that the helter skelter stampede in the sky is “something monumental” but doesn’t call it divine. Still, a scientist is consumed with the “mechanics of reality” while poring over the diagnostics of an experimental musician’s struck noggin. The medley of voices and scientific segues offer a balanced stew. The film doesn’t favor one over another, nor does it rule anything out. Most of those touched-by-lightning are tussling with universal questions. The white coats, too. No Eureka moment results, but the terrain covered is far and fruitful.

Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
Director: Jennifer Baichwal
Producers: Jennifer Baichwal and Nick De Pencier
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 76 min.
Release date: November 4 NY

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:01:28 -0800

Some films arrive at Sundance expecting to be great, and some the festival thrusts greatness upon. Foremost of these in 2009 was Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" By Sapphire, director Lee Daniels’ harrowing cross between an inspirational teacher genre exercise, a Ken Russell fantasy film of the ’70s and the child abuse melodrama Hound Dog. Overloaded a bit by Daniels’ laudable visual ambition and distinguished by an unflinching view of ghetto life that has nothing to do with standard Hollywood liberal postures toward deprivation and/or blackness, Precious is also (and foremost) a stunning acting showcase, not just for newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, who absolutely soars as the abused high school student Precious Jones, but also for comedian Mo’Nique in a stunning tour de force as Precious’ abusive mom.

It’s the ’80s, and Precious is a study in unexplored human potential. Morbidly overweight and functionally illiterate, she leads a vast and poetic internal life via a fantasy reflex that transports her to a shiny world of klieg lights and thrust stages where she can pretend to be beloved, talented and a nascent superstar. Precious uses these fantasies to insulate herself from the harsh realities of her world: humiliating gangs, random street violence and an abusive father who has been sexually assaulting her since she was three, with two resultant pregnancies. With her father largely absent, the gorgon in Precious’ daily life is her mother, a bitter recluse living on Welfare who routinely beats Precious out of warped romantic jealousy. A series of school teachers and social workers help Precious to move past her sad state, inspiring her to write out her own story as a way of changing her life.

Daniels has made a remarkable series of bold choices, all of which seek to depict Precious honestly and without the usual self-congratulatory showbiz cant. At times, Precious fantasizes without guilt about being white, so much so that it’s a white model’s features she sees in her own bedroom mirror. Precious is also not above petty thievery, stealing her own file from a social worker’s office and a bucket of chicken from a fast food store. In a sense, Precious is a more ambivalent and less idealized version of the little girl from Doug Atchison’s excellent (but far lighter) Akeelah and the Bee; someone trying to get over an environment that’s toxic to her aspirations and her dreams.

Despite her almost flamboyant largeness (which Precious sees as a natural reaction to Precious’ horrible home-life) and the sometimes melodramatic twists her story takes, Sidibe’s Precious is so startlingly truthful and so subtle she seems to have stepped out of a documentary to make her appearance here. Totally believable performances are also turned in by both Lenny Kravitz (as a male nurse) and Mariah Carey (as a tough but tender social worker), with Carey in particular disappearing so completely into her drab but sassy workaday messiah that the watcher’s mind keeps saying: “That can’t be her!”

But the almost certain 2010 Oscar nom for all of this (predictable even today, on the day the 2009 noms were just announced) belongs to Mo’Nique, whose alternately horrifying and devastating performance humanizes a monster. The last ten minutes of Precious are devoted to a revelatory confrontation between mother and daughter, and Mo’Nique’s bravura transformation, from opportunistic schemer to shattered woman unable to face an unlivable truth, is so unerring it literally makes the viewer gasp. Daniels, who produced Monsters Ball and shows a similar belief in giving his actors room to explore, has captured a performance here that can stand with the best ever committed to film. It simply should not be missed.

Distributor: Lionsgate
Cast: Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd and Lenny Kravitz
Director: Lee Daniels
Screenwriter: Damien Paul
Producers: Lisa Cortes and Tom Heller
Genre: Drama
Rating: R for child abuse including sexual assault, and pervasive language.
Running time: 105 min.
Release date: November 6 (limited)

Originally posted: January 22, 2009

Martin, Baldwin to Host Oscars

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:13:14 -0800

It's official. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will host the 82nd Annual Academy Awards on March 7, 2010. The duo will also appear together this December in It's Complicated, the new Nancy Meyers comedy.

“I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin,” said Martin in an official statement.

“I don’t play the banjo but I’m thrilled to be hosting the Oscars – it’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” added Baldwin.

Martin is certainly no stranger to the show, since he hosted the 73rd and 75th ceremonies. Baldwin received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 2003 for his work in The Cooler.

Wings of Desire

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:27:19 -0800

I’m at a bit of a loss in writing about Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire—a work worthy of words more beautiful than my own—in that German-born Wenders has crafted a film so ethereal in its essence that I run the risk of trivializing its allurement by pattering on with weighty hokum and verbose verbal flowering. This is a film delicate in its self-assurance. As a piece of art, Wings of Desire is remarkable in its grace, for the camera comes off as little more than an airy presence—one that references the beauty of existence through some rather dreamy compositions. Gliding along as if an apparition, the lens tells of a dynamic between the physical and the celestial; its imagery a testament to the contrasting existences we define ourselves by.

The world of Wings of Desire is one of angels. These heavenly beings walk among people and listen in on their most personal (and interpersonal) musings—fears, desires, moral obligations—stopping periodically to console those in need. The angels’ purpose is to impart a recollection of human warmth where it’s needed. In this, Wenders’ film takes on the challenge of postulating a culture of angels, specifically how they perceive the world in contrast to mankind, and how this sensationalist gap defines their own moral sensitivities.

The film is bookended by the journal scribbling of angel Damiel (Bruno Ganz) who, along with other divine protectors (namely Otto Sander’s Cassiel), watch over the streets of Berlin. Their abilities are not of a physical nature, but a spiritual one. Rather than be confrontational in their approach to man, the angels project a sort of binding warmth that gives way to cognitive guidance–suggesting that happiness may come from within, but the capacity for happiness is dependent upon outside sources. In this, ideas of being independently happy are adjourned from Wenders’ vision. The moral fulcrum of the film is based around this notion and that – as the angels continuously adapt to meet the psychological needs of humanity—they, though immaculate, become conscious of human emotion and longing. By observing the pleasures of mankind, particularly how they revel in the sensory, Damiel begins to ponder the tiny miracles that make up day-to-day life. He contemplates the advantages of experiencing things over knowing them and becomes fascinated with daily minutia like smoking, recognizing color, and the potential for taste. Naturally, this leads to an internal conflict in Damiel, who wants to exist outside the finite confines of Knowledge—to cross from the metaphysical to the physical.

Though Wings of Desire makes hypothetical-yet-relevant points about cultural assimilation and blissful ignorance, it double-functions as a pictorial of the city of Berlin. After living in America for eight years, Wenders returned to his Germany and found himself a social spectator; the making of Wings was, to him, about reestablishing himself amongst his own while expounding on the phenomena of perspective. The work paints earthly pleasures as transcendent, even in the eyes of divine certainty, while detailing the nuances of urban dwelling. Its focus on environment and how surrounding shapes self-doubt is edifying, if not wholly realized. Even the flourishes of music that denote differences in heavenly and earthly presences are pleasing in their concern. The poetic monologues of writer Peter Handke add hints of jocularity to the movie’s overarching sense of spiritual reflexivity. Wenders exceeds in channeling these formal components and translating them into a singularity that’s symphonic in its harmony. All these elements—the coexisting dimensions of man and spirit, the technical articulations, the weight given to life—come together under his helm to become cinema in its purest sense; a personal expression capable of moving countless others; a masterwork.

Extras

This two-disc Criterion release, while not chock-full of extras, does well in aiming its concern at the movie's strengths. First and foremost, the result of a new high-definition restoration is sublime. Upconverted, the film is sumptuous in aesthetic, though some fans may take issue with its sepia washing being excluded. That said, the stark black and white of the astral world is still breathtaking, and not to be dismissed outright.

A handful of excerpts and the like adorn the second disc, most of which deal with how Wenders and company (most notably cinematographer Henri Alekan) approach capturing a picture's tone and mood. The Angels are Among Us is a short documentary regarding the film's development, especially in terms of theme and technique. Wenders is forthright with his feelings about this and other works, and the relationship between him and ubercraftsman Alekan is showcased as one of respect, honor and humility. The pair pal around and discuss the physical labors of something that ultimately feels preternatural. Detail is at the forefront of these features and featurettes, illuminating viewers to the rigors of composing shots, structuring a story, and emulating light sources. Though this may sound like little more than tedium, I find these technical separations between artist and end product important, if only to show the organic nature of the cinematic process. This one comes highly recommended.

‘Michael Jackson’ Leads Monday

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:22:20 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It remained at the top of the box office for the sixth straight day on Monday. Sony’s highly anticipated concert documentary grossed $2.46 million for the day, which marked a 71 percent decrease from Sunday. That was a slightly larger daily percentage decline than most non-family films in wide releases experienced yesterday, though it was quite understandable given the film’s superb 18 percent daily increase on Sunday. Although This Is It opened well below the inflated expectations of most, it is already showing signs that suggest it won’t be anywhere near as front-loaded as it was originally expected to be either. This Is It has grossed $36.90 million thus far, placing it 50 percent ahead of the pace of 2004’s Ray (which was released just months after the death of Ray Charles).

Paramount’s Paranormal Activity finished in second with $1.19 million. That was down 69 percent from Sunday and down 36 percent from last Monday. After displaying tremendous holding power throughout the month of October, the low-budget horror film is starting to show some sings of slowing with Halloween now behind it. Nonetheless, Paranormal Activity has grossed $85.81 million in 39 days and is now just $14.19 million away from reaching the $100 million milestone.

Law Abiding Citizen continues to perform well for Overture as the action-thriller finished in third with $0.78 million. That marked a 65 percent slide from Sunday and a decline of just 27 percent from last Monday, though it should be noted that most holdovers experienced small declines from last Monday. The 18-day gross for Law Abiding Citizen stands at a better than expected $52.26 million.

Universal’s Couples Retreat finished in fourth place for the day with $0.59 million. The Vince Vaughn vehicle was down 68 percent from Sunday and down a slim 15 percent from last Monday. Couples Retreat has grossed $87.62 million through 25 days, placing it $12.38 million away from joining the $100 million club.

Where the Wild Things Are grossed $0.58 million to place in fifth. The big-budget production from Warner Bros. was down 75 percent from Sunday and down 31 percent from last Monday. Where the Wild Things Are has grossed $63.23 million in 18 days, which places it 11 percent behind the pace of 2001’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (without adjusting for ticket price inflation).

The lackluster showing for Saw VI continues. The latest installment in the Lionsgate franchise was down 50 percent from last Monday with a daily gross of $0.44 million. The 11-day start for Saw VI stands at $22.98 million, which places the film on course to finish its domestic run with just a tad under $30 million.

BOXOFFICE.com's box office recap for October can be read here.

Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:15:57 -0800

"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" That's what Johnny Rotten famously said at the close of the Sex Pistols final show in January 1978; it's also what an anonymous screening attendee sitting to my left said at the close of a Friday showing of Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, the "new" Maysles Bros. "documentary" on the Rolling Stones legendary 1969 live performances at Madison Square Garden. Frankly, I knew the feeling—at 27 minutes, GYYYO is somewhere between a teaser and a short—but it's vastly entertaining, and the glimpse it provides of the youngish Stones charisma and musical prowess is guaranteed to be catnip for anybody who has the slightest interest in rock ’n’ roll as we know it. Theatrical prospects are obviously limited, but the footage (apparently in a slightly different edit) appears on DVD in the just released 40th anniversary reissue box set of the famous concert album of the same title, which will doubtless show up in a significant number of baby-boomer Christmas stockings this season.

Essentially, GYYYO is a deftly re-jiggered version of all the Garden related footage that the Maysles left out of their classic Gimme Shelter in 1970. For those of you scoring at home, this means you get five complete live songs, including really riveting unplugged versions of two traditional blues numbers—Prodigal Son and You Gotta Move—with just Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. There are also excellent amps-to-eleven full band run-throughs of Satisfaction, I’m Free and Under My Thumb, plus some interesting backstage stuff—Jimi Hendrix talking guitars with Keith in the dressing room, Janis Joplin dancing in the wings. The real reason to see this, though, is a hilarious five minute scene of the photo shoot for the original Ya-Ya's album cover, filmed on a rainy street outside London as the ’60s wind to a close; everybody's high and giggling their asses off as drummer Charlie Watts, long-suffering good sport that he must be, is forced to get into a variety of silly costumes and ride around on a real ass. As an historical note, I should also add that the teenaged me was actually in attendance at one of those Garden shows back in 1969; I can't say for sure until I sit down with the DVD, but for one moment at least, future scholars of the period should note that I am nowhere to be seen in any of the audience footage.

Distributor: ABKCO
Director: Albert Maysles
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 27 min.
Release date: October 20 NY

Economic Fears

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:45:57 -0800

The new Cameron Diaz thriller The Box is a movie for our recession wracked age—even if it's set in the 1970s. The beautiful actress plays a woman who makes an ugly choice when her financial house of cards collapses around her.

The film, co-starring James Marsden and Frank Langella, boasts a live-wire trailer and a doozy of a mystery.

But is it hitting too close to the bone given the current state of the economy?

Films often fail to capture the current zeitgeist for an obvious reason—it typically takes several years to go from a first draft to a finished movie. Sometimes the gestation process can last more than a decade.

Occasionally, a film comes out at precisely the right time, like Saw VI’s assault on the insurance agency in the middle of the raging health care debate.

Will audiences appreciate escapist entertainment that reminds them of their failing 401K accounts, or is it precisely the right tonic for an ailing economy?

If Capitalism: A Love Story is any indication, “The Box” might see its box office tally downsized.

Documentarian Michael Moore’s films are usually box office catnip, but Capitalism hasn’t set box office turnstiles afire.

Fandango.com spokesman Harry Medved says today’s audiences want escapist fare first and foremost.

“The last thing they want to see is a story of economic hardship,” Medved says, pointing to the flat box office tally for last winter’s Confessions of a Shopaholic.

“You’re paying some serious money to go to the movie these days. You want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth,” he says. “Do you want to be reminded that money is tight and I just spent 10 dollars on a movie?”

The same held true over the summer for “disease” movies like Funny People and My Sister’s Keeper, also starring Diaz.

“Anything that feels like a downer” is having a harder time coaxing audiences into theaters, he says.

Another 2009 film which seemed to hit theaters at precisely the perfect time also bombed.

The International cast Clive Owen and Naomi Watts as a duo trying to take down crooked bankers. The film’s backers couldn’t have asked for a better release date, since the banking crisis hit a fever pitch when the film first hit theaters last January.

Instead, the film flopped.

“You would think Capitalism or The International would be a zeitgeist films that would catch fire with the movie-going public,” he says. “In both cases those films were too timely, too soon, too raw.”

Some films are able to thread the needle, delivering harrowing stories with enough redemption to enlist tentative movie goers. Tyler Perry’s films often deal with economic hardships, but by the final reel the protagonists have usually persevered through a combination of faith and family.

“Perry’s movies … are ultimately uplifting with a glimmer of hope,” he says.

Every year a serious Oscar contender manages to impact audiences despite a sobering narrative.

This year's entry could be Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, which focuses on an obese, physically abused teenager just trying to survive under harsh economic conditions. The film deals with depressing subject matter but packs a kernel of hope to offset the sadness.

Ian McKellen Talks About 'The Hobbit'

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:53:18 -0800

Source: SciFi Wire

Oscar nominee Ian McKellen recently spoke about The Hobbit, saying he'd read the screenplays for the two-chapter Lord of the Rings prequel.

"As Peter [Jackson] has said, they loved writing Gandalf [for The Hobbit] because they knew who they were writing for," he said. "The other Gandalf was written for, well, just as Gandalf. So it's extremely attractive that this part has been written for me. There's lots for me to enjoy, in all sorts of ways. And I couldn't be happier. But I'm sworn to secrecy. I'm not to say anything at all about the script."

The screenplays were written by Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who also wrote the screenplays for the original trilogy, as well as Guillermo Del Toro, who is taking over as director. "I have seen his other movies," says McKellen. "And I think the script, because I have read it, plays very much to Guillermo's strengths, as I've seen them." Finally, the actor also confirmed that the role of Bilbo, played by Ian Holm in the the original trilogy, is still yet to be cast. The Hobbit is tentatively slated to open in December 2011.

Wrangling 'Broncos'

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:20:19 -0800

Jared Hess might be indie film's Lord of the Geeks, but in person, the soft-spoken, spectacled and bearded writer-director is surprisingly unassuming for a man who got both freaks and jocks dancing like Napoleon Dynamite. After the tots heard 'round the world and squeezing Jack Black into spandex for Nacho Libre, Hess is back with Gentlemen Broncos, a curious flick about a sci-fi fan named Benjamin (Michael Angarano) who agonizes when his debut novel is poached by a diva local filmmaker and his idol Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement). Hess talks to BOXOFFICE about the line between exploiting and endorsing geekdom, and why he truly—no, really—loves his characters.

One thing this film does is remind an audience of what happens between when a writer writes his words and then a director—or in this case, a director and Jemaine Clement—picks them up. Do you think you'll ever write something you won't direct yourself?

Probably not. I mean maybe that will happen down the road, but yeah, I feel like it’s the little fetus that I wouldn’t give away once I’ve given birth to it, you know what I mean?

How does the writing process go with you and your wife? I mean, you actually use the word 'fetus.'

It’s great. We’ve written all the three films that we’ve done together—I don’t know if I’d get any work done without her, man. I’m pretty lazy and really ADD, so I don’t know how much I’d accomplish. But our comedic sensibility is totally in line with one another. By the time that we’re done writing a script, we’re not quite sure who’s responsible for what because we’ve written it together. It’s not like I write for a day or two and then hand it over to her. We do it together. We have to get a babysitter now—we have two young kids—and we’ll go to the office and write, and go to lunch, and come back and try and get two pages done before we have to go relieve our babysitter.

How do you cast your extras?

Gosh, we just try and find the real people in the neighborhood. Usually the kids in our neighborhood where we live. We try and get them, especially for this film, to come be a part. We have a lot of family, too, between my family and Jerusha’s family. If you listen to the DVD commentary for the film, it’s mostly like ‘There’s Uncle Hal in the background clapping, there’s Aunt Patience…’ It ends up being quite a family affair.

Your films remind me of the commercial director Joe Sedelmaier from the '80s—he did 'Where’s the beef?'

He cast real people. Totally. And that’s really important to me. For a lot of the bit parts in the film, our local casting director in Salt Lake would go out to the grocery store with a video camera and put people on tape. We found a lot of people that we used in the film that way, which was a lot of fun.

That’s exactly how he did it. He’d be walking down the street and just corner someone. What do you want people to be talking about like over dinner after they leave Gentlemen Broncos?

Boy, that’s a good question. You know, all of our films, the characters that we populate our films with, are usually based on someone that we know or grew up with—or a family member. It’s funny how Napoleon resonated with people. I think a lot of people identified with this underdog guy—even if they weren’t like him growing up, they knew someone like him, or had a brother that was like him. Especially with this film, there’s a lot of different layers with the science fiction aspect and the celebration of that world, which is something that I love and have always loved. You’ve got all these very different eccentric people that all are going through some kind of a creative process. They have a big creative ambition that they’re trying to achieve. Whether it’s the mom and her modest nightgown designs, or Benjamin and his Yeast Lords book, or Chevalier and all of his weird ideas or Lonnie Donaho making his home movies. I hope that aside from it being a comedy, that people can be inspired to chase their dreams, as bizarre as they may be.

Critics of your work feel like you don’t like your characters or the world that you’ve put them in. How do you respond to that, or what are people missing?

It’s funny. A lot of people that didn’t like Napoleon thought that we had contempt for characters and were being condescending to them. But the truth is, I moved around a lot growing up and was always having to adapt to a new school and make new friends. I always felt like an outsider, as did my wife Jerusha. That’s kind of a theme in our films. But, when we were making Napoleon, and even in the case of this film, people that are forgotten because maybe they don’t achieve a level of success that society deems great, I feel like their stories are equally important, however ridiculous their ambitions may be. For me, the kid that you would just dismiss at school, or in life or at work—I want to hear their stories, too. I always felt growing up that I wanted someone to care about me, and I want to see those people's stories and give them a home in cinema. So I have a lot of affection for these characters. Yes, we are laughing at them, but they achieve their dreams in the end. I’d like a happy ending.

Your films show the normal people—the alphas—as being the truly weird ones. I feel like the only other major filmmaker as focused on that is Neil LaBute, and you guys both came out of Brigham Young University. What's going on there?

I don’t know? I’ve never met Neil LaBute. He did go to BYU—I think he was in the theater department. I was in high school when he made his first movie. That’s a weird coincidence. I know people who went to school with him, but I’m not that familiar with his work. I guess I should be up on the BYU alumni film.

Work up that BYU pride. Mormon filmmakers aren’t that large of a group—people seem to really try to find your personal beliefs in your work, more so than they do for Christian filmmakers.

Yeah. With anybody that has any kind of faith, that’s going to affect their work in some way or another. We haven’t tried to preach our faith in our films by any means—they're all comedies. But, I think the cultural aspects of it, where our films have taken place, the culture of that area is a big part of the films. I think people want to see their faith in our work, but it’s really more of a cultural thing as opposed to a religious thing.

Napoleon Dynamite is a huge guilty pleasure flick for people—what are yours?

Oh boy. Like Big Trouble in Little China, Willow. The nostalgic films of my childhood are the ones that I love a lot. Film, I’ve always loved it as an escape more than anything.

I was in Mexico two weeks ago, and next to the standard Luche Libre costumes being sold on the street, they were selling costumes of Jack Black as Nacho Libre.

That’s wild. Yeah, I had some family that recently went on a cruise to Mexico and they said you could buy the mask and the capes and little dolls and piñatas and stuff.

Culture is folding in on itself.

Totally. But Luche Libre man, that’s been in Mexico forever. It’s their thing; they call it their national sport, more so than soccer. Depending on who you talk to.

What’s next for you guys?

Jerusha, she’s written a romantic comedy without me. I feel like I’ve been holding her back all these years. She’s super talented. And I’ve got some other things that I’m working on that are probably too early to talk about, but we’re staying busy.

Walden Media Adapting Berenstain Bears

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:16:30 -0800

Source: USA Today

Night at the Museum and Pink Panther director Shawn Levy is set to take the reigns on an adaptation of the popular Berenstain Bears series of children's books, using a mix of live-action and computer graphics to bring the characters to life. Levy says that he'll be aiming for a tone similar to that of Will Ferrell's 2003 comedy Elf.

The director most recently shot Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which earned $177.2 million at the domestic box office. His next project is the Steve Carell/Tina Fey comedy Date Night, which will open on April 9th, 2010.

Polanski Makes Another Bail Offer

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:50:57 -0800

Source: The Associated Press

Director Roman Polanski has made a second bid for his freedom from prison since his arrest in Zurich on September 26th over the charge of having sex with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977.

Last week, the Swiss Justice Ministry rejected Polanski's plea for freedom amidst fears he would flee, as the filmmaker spent 30 years away from the United States in order to evade justice. Polanski's lawyer spoke on Monday, saying the new request had "adequate guarantees" Polanski would not flee if released. An official for the Swiss Criminal Court declined to comment.

'Dragon' Teaser Premieres

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:02:11 -0800

Source: Yahoo! Movies

DreamWorks Animation will once again step into the world of 3D with How to Train Your Dragon, an animated adventure that is due in theaters on March 26. The film boasts an impressive voice cast which includes Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill and Kristen Wiig.

DreamWorks Animation has consistently given Disney/Pixar a run for their money. Although, this year Disney/Pixar's UP easily trumped DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens at the box office.

Dragon should easily be one of the biggest films of the spring, and it could potentially launch a new franchise for the studio.

Christmas Comes But Once a Year (The Return of a Recurring Series)

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:35:31 -0800

Okay, I realize it's not even Thanksgiving yet, and of course, like last year the economy is, in Raymond Chandler's phrase, trying to crawl under a duck (there hasn't been any stimulus package in MY pants, I'll tell you that for free). But the ineluctable fact is we're all going to have to buy presents this holiday season no matter what.

That being the case, I'd be remiss at this point if I didn't mention that if you've got a little disposable income and some boomer friends on your Christmas list, you really ought to check out the latest installment of Walt Disney Treasures -- as always, limited edition box sets (we're talking metallic boxes, BTW -- you could go through plutonium with these things) full of interesting, heretofore unavailable stuff from the Disney vaults, complete with numbered certificates of authenticity and some other bells and whistles.

The aforementioned latest installment -- on sale today, as it turns out -- being Zorro: The Complete First and Second Seasons!

Disney's TV Zorro, for those of you born (to pick an arbitrary date) after the hit recording "Walking My Cat Named Dog" by Norma Tanega in 1966, was the first small-screen treatment of the venerable masked swordsman saga, and despite the subsequent charms of Antonio Banderas in the big-budget feature films, it remains, I think, the definitive adaptation. Guy Williams -- later the inter-galactic patriarch on Lost in Space -- played the dual role of the swashbuckling avenger and the foppish Diego de la Vega, but for most of us kids, the real attraction of the show was Henry Calvin as Sgt. Garcia, the show's loveably bumbling 2nd banana villain. A huge hit in its day -- the 78 half-hour episodes ran between 1957 and '59 -- the show was eventually cancelled not because of ratings, but because of a legal dispute over its ownership between the Mouse and ABC; after its demise, Disney did a couple of subsequent one hour Zorro specials before finally pulling the plug on the character. All of the episodes and the specials can be found on the two new box sets; bonuses include an intro by indefatigable film scholar (and high school chum of mine) Leonard Maltin, a profile of Williams from the old Disneyland show, an interview with Williams' stunt double, and a really cool little metallic Zorro lapel pin.

Here's a clip to give you an idea of the show's quite handsome for television in the 50s production values, the overall fun level, and the generally good looking restoration of the original film elements (this stuff was colorized in the early 90s, BTW, but fortunately everybody at Disney seems to have decided to forget about that little lapse in judgement).

In any case, you can -- and absolutely definitely should -- order both volumes of the TV Zorro here.

Oh -- and realizing that Disney is a family outfit, I've saved a personal reminiscence for the end. If you have kids, you might want to ask them to back off from the computer right now.

Anyway, and I'm not making this up, back in the day a classmate of mine insisted that the line in the Zorro theme song --

"Zorro, the fox so cunning and free. Zorro, who makes the sign of the "Z."

-- heard here in the original TV soundtrack recording by The Mellomen --

-- was actually

"Zorro, he f**ks Bob Cummings for free. Zorro, who wears the signs of disease."

Hey, what can I tell you -- I went to a really twisted elementary school.

Endgame

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:10:57 -0800

British film has something of a corner in an unremarked new movie trend: the low-budget, cinéma-vérité, fact-based historical drama filmed as political thriller. The granddaddies of the form are twin masterpieces: Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers and Costa-Gavras’ Z, and there is some evidence the makers of Endgame, a solid if undistinguished recreation of the negotiations that ended white rule in South Africa, have watched Pontecorvo’s work in particular with special care. But it’s Paul Greengrass, the UK veteran and Bourne franchise director, who broke through in 2002 with the IRA drama Bloody Sunday, who is the patron saint of this mini-movement. Endgame director Peter Travis has emulated Greengrass’ aggressive handheld camera aesthetic almost to a fault, out of what seems like lack of faith in some fascinating material.

For despite some obligatory car chases and some cliché genre lines like “Trust no one” and “If this gets out I shall have to deny all knowledge and disown you,” this is mainly a movie about something anti-visual: men talking around tables. Fortuitously, the men in question include the great actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (still best known for his moving performance in Dirty Pretty Things) and William Hurt in the pivotal roles of Thabo Mbeki and Willie Esterhuyse, the principal negotiators respectively on the ANC (African National Congress) and Afrikaner sides. Both actors turn in stunning and coolly emotive performances, with Hurt especially impressive delivering his lines in what sounded to these ears like a flawless dialect. Watching these two men reach warily across such a bitter divide in order to resolve the fate of millions is like watching two great boxers in the ring who weave back and forth and then suddenly embrace each other just before the deathblow lands.

There’s nothing in Endgame that’s less than proficient. If anything, this is a film that should have greater built-in appeal than Bloody Sunday in the Age of Obama, especially since American public opinion played a weighty role in bringing change to South Africa, and the events depicted are ones much of the audience can remember. Still, there’s a spark of passion and commitment in Greengrass’ work that Travis’ journeyman approach doesn’t largely reach. Reviews will be tepidly positive and dutiful, but any distributors interested in picking up this film shouldn’t expect the kind of passionate critical encomiums it’ll need to carry it to an audience beyond those with an immediate passion for the issues and era represented.

Distrbutor: Monterey Media
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Hurt and Johnny Lee Miller
Director: Pete Travis
Screenwriter: Paula Milne, based on The Fall of Apartheid by Robert Harvey
Producer: Chris Roope and Hal Vogel
Genre: Historical Drama
Rating: Unrated, but with scenes of political violence, racist language.
Running time: 101 min.
Release date: PG-13 for violence/disturbing images and some strong language.

Previously posted: February 3, 2009

Underwhelming 'Prince'

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:03:38 -0800

It's no secret that Disney will try to turn Prince of Persia into a franchise the size of Pirates of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, based on the new trailer, I think they'll have a tough time doing it.

Persia has a The Mummy meets POTC vibe to it, and I think mainstream audiences will eat it up for the most part. But Jake Gyllenhaal seems ill suited to carrying a franchise like this. Gyllenhaal has delivered some fine performances in character dramas such as Moonlight Mile and Zodiac, but he just seems lost here. Orlando Bloom also looked slightly lost in the POTC films, but he had Johnny Depp to back him up. All Gyllenhaal has is Sir Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina camping it up. Make no mistake, Kingsley and Molina are great actors and they deserve to have fun in a paycheck role every so often. Yet they don't bring the same level of mainstream appeal that Depp does.

Persia represents yet another attempt to turn a video game franchise into a film franchise. While it certainly doesn't look as bad as Super Mario Bros., it also doesn't appear to be a game-changer for this type of adaptation. There are plenty of lucrative video game properties out there and some day somebody will hit an adaptation out of the park and make tons of cash in the process.

Persia will be forced to share space in the multiplexes with Sex and the City 2 when they both open on May 28, 2010. It'll be a typical summer weekend, to be sure. Both films will manage to find their respective audiences without hurting each other.

Wilson Boards 'Marmaduke'

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:44:59 -0800

Source: THR

One of America's favorite dogs, Marmaduke, has been given a voice for the upcoming CG-meets-live-action film adaptation of the 55-year-old comic strip: Owen Wilson. He joins a cast which already includes Judy Greer, Lee Pace and William H. Macy, and voicework by Emma Stone, Steve Coogan, Damon Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, George Lopez and Fergie. The family comedy is planning for a June 2010 release.

Clearly, Fox is hoping that "Owen Wilson plus wily-yet-lovable dog equals huge success," riding in the wake of last year's Marley & Me and its $243 million (!) worldwide box office intake. And if that's not enough, Garfield, that other CG and live-action family comedy based on a housepet from a comic strip, also saw success with $176 million worldwide.

Wilson's lovably nasal voice will also be heard in frequent collaborator Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox, which opens with a limited release on November 13. Next year will also find Wilson reprising his role as Kevin in the next installment of the Meet the Parents franchise, Little Fockers, which is shaping up to be one of the largest movies of 2010.

Clooney Eyes 'Descendants'

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:24:29 -0800

Source: Variety

George Clooney is reportedly in talks to star in Alexander Payne's latest directorial effort, The Descendants. The film, which centers around a man who takes his two daughters on a search for his wife's lover in order to save his marriage, is set to begin filming in February.

Payne's last feature-length directorial effort was 2004's Sideways. The Fox Searchlight release raked in $71.5 million and it won Payne and writing partner Jim Taylor an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Clooney is set to have a very productive fall. This weekend, The Men Who Stare at Goats hits theaters. November will see the release of Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up in the Air hits theaters in December.

Disney's A Christmas Carol

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:21:57 -0800

Technically far superior to his two previous directorial efforts in the Motion (a.k.a. Performance) Capture process (Beowulf, Polar Express), Robert Zemeckis has delivered a spectacular and extraordinary new 3D version of the greatest Christmas story of them all. Serving up a great treat for the holidays, the director has brought this Charles Dickens classic to such vivid life that in some ways you feel like you are experiencing it for the first time. With Jim Carrey taking on several roles including Scrooge, this new millennium telling of A Christmas Carol should fill Disney’s coffers with lots of jingle jangle for a very merry box office haul indeed.

Although it may be too dark and scary for the youngest tykes in the family, Zemeckis, who also wrote the adaptation, has effectively gone back to the core of Dicken’s venerable ghost story and married it brilliantly with the hybrid animation process known as Performance Capture. A Christmas Carol has been done to death in so many forms by everyone from Mickey Mouse to Barbie to Mr. Magoo to Bill Murray that this faithful retelling seems oddly overdue. Of course, Disney being Disney and Zemeckis being Zemeckis, it’s been wrapped in a process that takes Scrooge on a state-of-the-art thrill ride, perhaps the greatest time travel story of them all—which is appropriate since it is coming from the creator of the Back To The Future trilogy.

In addition to the remarkable technology on display—a technology that effectively heightens the tale’s fright factor—Jim Carrey is central to this film’s success. He not only takes on the central role of the famous curmudgeon, Ebeneezer Scrooge, but all the Ghosts, Past, Present and Future. Carrey treats the character very seriously, clearly drawing inspiration from Alastair Sim’s interpretation of Scrooge in the 1951 version, still the best live action take on the classic. Carrey’s vocal prowess is rich and varied, lifting the whole enterprise several notches with his amazing performance. Playing all the ghosts is a good idea, as they now logically appear as an extension of Scrooge rather than as intruders. Offering able support in the roles that are left is a stellar cast including Bob Hoskins, taking on both Fezziwig and Old Joe; Gary Oldman in several parts, but most notably as Scooge’s loyal clerk Bob Cratchit; Robin Wright Penn as the lovely Belle and Fan; Cary Elwes in multiple roles; and Colin Firth in only one role, nephew Fred, which he does briefly but quite affably.

The Performance Capture process has advanced leaps and bounds since the dead eye days of Polar Express, and in some cases it’s so realistic you are hard-pressed to believe these actors are being animated. Disney plans to play the picture exclusively in 3D—at least until Avatar comes along to steal many of the screens. In this case, the 3D process is dazzling and entirely appropriate for a highly visual cinematic experience that should keep any bah humbuggers in the audience to a minimum.

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Cast: Jim Carrey, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins, Cary Elwes, Colin Firth and Gary Oldman.
Director/Screenwriter: Robert Zemeckis
Producers: Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke
Genre: Animation
Rating: PG for scary sequences and images
Running time: 96 min.
Release date: November 6, 2009

October Box Office Recap

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:47:46 -0800

For the first time since June, a new monthly record was set at the box office in October. The total box office of $695 million for October 2009 shattered the previous October high-mark of $640 million set back in October of 2004. However, it should also be noted that October of 2009 did fall short of the $740 million total of October 2004 when adjusting for ticket-price inflation, as well as the adjusted performances of both October 2003 and October 1999. October 2009 was up an especially impressive 13.5 percent over the $612 million gross of October 2008. The overall box office for the first 10 months of 2009 stands at $8.55 billion, placing it 7.8 percent ahead of 2008 at the same point in time and just $1.45 billion away from reaching the $10 billion mark.

Like October 2009, October of 2004 saw a number of strong performers aimed at various audience demographics, which included Shark Tale, The Grudge, Ladder 49, Friday Night Lights and Shall we Dance? The final weekend of that month also saw the release of Ray and the very first Saw film, though both of those films earned the majority of their grosses in the following month of November.

The big story in October 2009 was clearly the little horror film that relatively few had even heard about before October of 2009, Paramount’s Paranormal Activity. The extremely low-budget production exploded upon its first major expansion on October 9th, thanks in large part to a unique advertising campaign centered on building strong word of mouth through social networking. Paranormal Activity was unrolled slowly throughout the month, which allowed for word of mouth to grow and for per-location averages to remain strong. The film was the second highest grossing film of the month (trailing Universal’s Couples Retreat by just $4.46 million during the month) and experienced its crowning achievement when it easily topped the opening weekend performance of Lionsgate’s Saw VI (in 1,091 fewer locations no less) to lead the weekend box office of October 23th to 25th.

Before the break-out of Paranormal Activity, it looked as though the break-out of Sony’s Zombieland on October 2nd was going to be the big box office story of October. However, after a strong opening weekend of $24.73 million and a ten-day start of $47.60 million, the zombie comedy clearly took a notable hit from the expansion of Paranormal Activity and from the many new wide releases during the second half of the month. Nonetheless, Zombieland grossed an impressive $70.44 million in October, which made it the third highest grossing film during the month.

The following week saw the release of Couples Retreat, which ended up as the month’s highest grossing film (though it will ultimately fall behind Paranormal Activity sometime in November). The PG-13 comedy marked yet another success for Vince Vaughn, as it too exceeded pre-release expectations with a three-day start of $34.29 million. After a sizable second weekend slide, the film stabilized towards the end of the month by serving as an alternative for audiences not interested in Halloween themed fare.

October 16th saw the release of Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are, which was one of the favorites to win the monthly box office crown heading into the month. The expensive adaptation directed by Spike Jonze opened with a very solid $32.70 million, but has faded away quickly in the days after its opening weekend. The film was ultimately unable to cross-over beyond its pre-existing fanbase, in part from mixed word of mouth and from being seen by some as too scary for smaller children.

October 16th also saw the release of Overture’s Law Abiding Citizen and Sony’s The Stepfather, both of which were solid performers during the second half of the month. Law Abiding Citizen exceeded expectations in part by appealing to audiences not interested in Where the Wild Things Are, Paranormal Activity and Saw VI. It opened with $21.04 million and has already gone on to become the highest grossing film in Overture’s young history as a distributor. The Stepfather was helped out by the lack of PG-13 thrillers and horror films as of late, though its performance has also been soft for a PG-13 Screen Gems release within those genres.

After a very strong start to the month, the box office took a disappointing turn during the weekend of October 23rd, as all four major releases that weekend (Saw VI, Summit’s Astro Boy, Universal’s The Vampire's Assistant and Fox Searchlight’s Amelia) underwhelmed. The most notable of the four (though still the most financially successful of the four) was clearly Saw VI. After dominating the horror market every October since 2005, Saw VI opened with just $14.12 million (which was down a massive 53 percent from the debut of last year’s Saw V). A large percentage of the franchise’s dependable fanbase didn’t show up this year, as they turned to Paranormal Activity and Law Abiding Citizen for their October thrills instead.

October ended with mixed results with the debut of Michael Jackson’s This Is It. The highly anticipated concert documentary from Sony opened with $34.44 million in its first five days of release. While that was a solid start for a non-horror film opening so close to Halloween, it was also well below the massive pre-release expectations most had for it. However, in having its original 16-day run extended through the end of Thanksgiving weekend, This Is It now has a better chance of remaining a factor at the November box office.

For the month of October, the top ten films were as follows:

Couples Retreat ($85.2 million), Paranormal Activity ($80.7 million), Zombieland ($70.4 million), Where the Wild Things Are ($60.4 million), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ($52.8 million), Law Abiding Citizen ($49.2 million), Toy Story/ Toy Story 2 in 3D ($30.5 million), Michael Jackson’s This Is It ($26.1 million), The Stepfather ($23.7 million) and Saw VI ($21.3 million).

‘This Is It’ Tops Halloween Weekend

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:18:36 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It was able to hold of Paramount’s Paranormal Activity to lead the domestic box office over Halloween weekend. The anticipated concert documentary grossed $23.23 million for the weekend and $34.44 million during its first five days of release. Although that was well below the pre-release expectations of most, the Sony release made up for that with a strong estimated international start of $68.5 million (bringing the film’s five-day worldwide start to roughly $103 million). Michael Jackson has been far more popular outside of North America for many years, so the fact that This Is It performed much better internationally comes as no surprise. The film’s domestic total for the weekend also topped Sunday’s studio estimate by $1.93 million after a stronger than expected Sunday performance.

The opening weekend performance for This Is It also looks more respectable when considering that historically the box office for non-horror films has suffered when Halloween falls on the weekend. Despite the slower than expected domestic start, This Is It still delivered the largest ever Halloween Day gross with $7.08 million (topping the previous mark of $5.39 million set by Saw back in 2004) and the largest ever Halloween weekend debut when Halloween occurred during a weekend (topping the $20.04 million start of Ray, also in 2004). Through five days, This Is It is running 48 percent ahead of the pace of Ray (which was released just months after the death of Ray Charles). Sony has already extended the domestic theatrical window of This Is It through the end of Thanksgiving weekend, which obviously helps the film’s prospects going forward.

Paranormal Activity continued to impress with a second place finish of $16.39 million. The ultra low-budget horror film was down just 22 percent from last weekend, as it was helped by Halloween, an expansion into an additional 459 locations and from serving as the most popular alternative for moviegoers not interested in This Is It. If it wasn’t for This Is It, Paranormal Activity would have set a new Halloween Day record with its Saturday gross of $6.58 million. Paranormal Activity has grossed a tremendous $84.63 million through 38 days. However, with Halloween now behind it (which resulted in a sharp 42 percent daily decline on Sunday) and Universal’s The Fourth Kind and Warner’s The Box both opening on Friday, Paranormal Activity could lose a lot of momentum next weekend.

Overture’s Law Abiding Citizen was up one spot from last weekend to finish in third. The action-thriller starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler grossed $7.40 million, which was down a solid 40 percent from last weekend. Law Abiding Citizen passed the $50 million mark on Sunday and has a good chance of clearing the $70 million mark by the end of its domestic run.

Despite boasting Halloween appeal, both Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are and Lionsgate’s Saw VI experienced huge declines over Halloween weekend. Where the Wild Things Are was down 58 percent with a weekend gross of $5.93 million while Saw VI dropped a massive 63 percent from its already disappointing debut. Where the Wild Things Are did pass the $60 million mark over the weekend, while Saw VI has grossed just $22.53 million through ten days.

Although Halloween falling on Saturday clearly took a toll on this weekend’s box office, Sunday’s grosses for a number of films were ultimately stronger than estimated by the studios on Sunday. As a result this weekend’s combined box office of just under $91 million was able to top the same weekend last year by 3 percent. This weekend’s box office was down 22 percent from last weekend, but business should pick back up again next weekend with the beginning of the holiday movie season.

BOXOFFICE.com's Weekly Anticipation Index with early predictions can be read here.

Screenwriters Board 'Roger Rabbit' Sequel

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:16:45 -0800

Source: MTV

While promoting his motion-capture holiday film A Christmas Carol, director Robert Zemeckis was asked about the status of a sequel to his 1988 Oscar-winning comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit. "There's a script that's being developed," he replied. "We've got the original writers, that are working on it now, [Peter S.] Seaman and [Jeffrey] Price."

Zemeckis' last three films (The Polar Express, Beowulf and Christmas Carol) have all been motion-capture, and he has been mostly tight-lipped about any technical aspects of a Roger Rabbit sequel. In other interviews, however, he did state that if he went that route, the film would not be entirely motion-capture, and he would try to use more traditional techniques to create the toon characters. The original film's characters were hand-animated, with acclaimed animation director Richard Williams supervising the production.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit earned $154.2 million domestically (about $270 million when adjusted for inflation) and took home four Oscars, for Visual Effects, Sound Effects, Editing, and a Special Achievement award for Williams.

'Blair Witch' Sequel in the Works?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:58:32 -0800

Source: The Toronto Star

Original creators Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick recently spoke about the possibility of a third Blair Witch film, fueled by the success of Paramount's word-of-mouth blockbuster. "I wouldn't be completely honest with you if I said I wasn't jealous of Paranormal Activity," says Sánchez.

The writing and directing team turned down the offer to direct Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, which bombed at the box office. Now, a decade later, the pair is ready to create a follow-up to their original film, ignoring the second chapter they didn't make. "We're at the step where we're about to pitch to Lionsgate, which owns the movie rights now. It's pretty much up to them. They can completely squash it or greenlight it."

The original film grossed $140.5 million (only a half-million short of $200 million when adjusted for inflation) against a $60,000 budget, on the strength of an advertising campaign that promoted the hand-held, first-person film as "found footage". The 2000 sequel, in comparison, was shot like a traditional film, costing $15 million but only scraping together $26.4 million during its theatrical run.

'Terminator' Up For Sale This Month

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:32:21 -0800

Source: The Financial Times, ComingSoon

As per recent rumors, film producers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek are putting the rights to the Terminator franchise up for sale this month. Anderson and Kubicek own the film production company Halcyon, which produced 2009's Terminator Salvation.

Changing hands is nothing new to the Terminator series. The Terminator was released by Orion Pictures, Terminator 2: Judgment Day by Carolco Pictures, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines by Warner Bros. and Terminator Salvation by Halcyon, with Warner Bros. distributing. Interestingly, both Orion and Carolco eventually went bankrupt, and Halcyon filed their own bankruptcy suit on August 19. All of the studios have expressed interest (with Sony looking likely); the rights in question only apply to future Terminator films, and do not include the rights to the existing four.

Salvation was not the summer blockbuster that Halcyon was hoping for, grossing only $125.3 million in the US against a $200 million budget; however, it did much better overseas, where it picked up an additional $246 million.

'Tron Legacy' Writers Pull Out 'Ouija' Board

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:16:15 -0800

Source: THR

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, writers of the much-anticipated 3D sequel Tron Legacy, have been tapped by Universal to write a film based on Hasbro's Ouija board.

The Ouija board, used to spell out messages and answer questions, is one of several board games currently being developed into feature films, including Monopoly (by Ridley Scott), Battleship (by Peter Berg) and a new Clue film (by Gore Verbinski).

In the 1980's, there were plans to create Monopoly and Sorry movies if Clue was a success, but the film failed to find a foothold at the box office. Today, Hasbro is hoping the games will spawn similar success stories as their big-screen adaptations of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which grossed $402 and $150 million at the domestic box office, respectively.

A New 'Kind' of Terror

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:47:33 -0800

Ten years after The Blair Witch Project startled audiences the impact of horror verite is still being felt.

The runaway success of Paranormal Activity, the no stars, no budget, single cam horror flick is further proof that audiences crave a semblance of reality in their escapist horror films.

Most moviegoers understand the actors in Activity are just that—actors. But the film’s premise, that the video we’re about to see was found by local law enforcement, gives it an eerie sense of reality that Freddy, Michael and Jason could never evoke.

So it’s fortuitous that The Fourth Kind, which details the disappearances of several people in Alaska, is coming so closely on the heels of “Activity.”

Kind, while eschewing the single-cam approach and using a recognizable star like Milla Jovovich, nonetheless plays up the fact that it’s based on real events.

“Every scene in the movie is supported by archive footage,” says Jovovich in a trailer playing on the movie’s official web site.

Does it matter if that message is real or just marketing hype?

Catherine Zimmer, Assistant Professor of the Film and Screen Studies Program at Pace University, says movies like The Blair Witch Project can be quite effective in tricking even today’s savvy audiences.

Zimmer recently showed Blair Witch to her film class and one of her students sheepishly asked afterward if the events in the film were real.

“It’s amazing how much power that still has,” Zimmer says. “That mode of marketing still has a fair amount of power.”

Zimmer, currently working on a book about surveillance films and their intersection with the horror genre, says our reality television culture is helping to enhance the scares of films like The Fourth Kind and Paranormal Activity.

Seeing horror through the filter of a shaky, grainy camera, one without the bells and whistles of a feature film, intensifies the jolts for today’s audiences.

“Even though we’re cynical, it’s that technological look that is reality to us,” she says. “It’s somehow bringing in the reality of our mediated existence home to us.”

Activity is just the latest example of Hollywood scaring us with tools of a modern age.

“Horror is always that place where you’re processing what technologies can do and how they can be scary,” she says.

The communal experience of watching a movie today has been augmented by sharing stories about the films in question online. It’s not just being scared in a darkened theater anymore—it’s downloading the spooky trailer that hints that the movie in question has a kernel of truth to it.

Zimmer doesn’t think the horror verite effect alone can propel a project like The Fourth Kind to the kind of box office Activity is drumming up.

“I don’t think the reality effect, the blurring of fiction and reality, is enough to do well at the box office.” she says. “Sometimes you don’t know when something is gonna hit.”

The 'Avatar' Hype Machine

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:58:55 -0800

With about a month and a half until Avatar hits theaters, I'm still getting the impression that 20th Century Fox is fighting an uphill battle to make sure that moviegoers show up to see James Cameron's latest film.

In a prime example of synergy, Fox gave the 3D flick a big push during its broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Seattle Seahawks game as well as during Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday. Since 20th Century Fox has had about a six-month window to sell a $250 million movie, it should come as no surprise that they are running big stunts such as this.

There's no doubting that Avatar will open with respectable numbers. Millions of movie enthusiasts have been following Cameron's every word about the project for years now, and they'll show up in droves on opening weekend. It should also do quite well overseas. The problem is that for the film to be a true blockbuster, it needs to appeal to a much broader base than it is. Word did not spread as well as it should have after "Avatar Day" back in August when Cameron unveiled a 15-minute series of clips on 3D IMAX screens across the country. The event was intended to create a sense of excitement and anticipation. The people who didn't attend the screenings should have felt left out. Unfortunately, the reactions were mixed. The screening that I caught in San Francisco was met with enthusiasm at first before it felt as though the air was sucked out of the room.

During the rest of this month, there's bound to be a huge rush of television spots and maybe even a couple more exclusive clips will make their way to the web. The game is far from over, but at this point the level of buzz is not where it needs to be. Case in point: Disney's The Princess and the Frog page on Facebook currently boasts 41,542 fans, and that film opens wide December 11 after a limited release. Avatar only has 16,350 fans and it opens on December 18. The social networking site is rapidly becoming a reliable way to gauge interest in new movies. It shows that if marketing is successful, fans will go online and show their support.

Morgan Freeman Gets 'Dirty'

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:30:36 -0800

Source: THR

Morgan Freeman is attached to star in an untitled Warner Bros. comedy written by Josh Cagan and Greg Coolidge. Warner Bros recently picked up the film, which had a working title of Dirty Old Men.

Dirty follows an aging playboy who finally meets the love of his life, while his best friend/wingman of 40 years, played by Freeman, tries to break them up. Peter Segal, who directed Get Smart for Warner Bros., may take the helm in addition to producing. The studio also reportedly would like to reteam Freeman with Jack Nicholson on this project. The duo starred in The Bucket List, which grossed nearly $175 million worldwide in 2007.

Freeman can next be seen as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood's Invictus when the movie hits theaters on December 11.

Roberts Nabs 'Neighborhood' Rights

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:57:09 -0800

Source: Variety

Julia Roberts has acquired the rights for "In the Neighborhood" through her Red Om Films production company. "Neighborhood" is a new nonfiction book from Peter Lovenheim and it will be published in April.

Red Om has a first-look deal with Reliance Big Entertainment, where they've set up four other projects.

Roberts will next be seen as part of the impressive ensemble cast of Garry Marshall's Valentine's Day. The Oscar-winning actress is now shooting Eat, Pray, Love with the likes of James Franco, Billy Crudup and Javier Bardem.

Roberts last appeared on screen opposite Clive Owen in Duplicity, which turned out to be a minor disappointment at the box office after it grossed only $40.5 million domestically.

How Bad Could It Be? (An Occasional Series): In Praise of Older Women

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:15:42 -0800

Just finished watching the new Miramax DVD version of Chéri, the adaptation of the scandalous in its day (1920) novel, starring the still toothsome Michelle Pfeiffer and reuniting her with the Dangerous Liasons directing/writing team of Stephen Frears and Christopher Hampton. I missed this one in the theaters earlier this year (as did just about everybody else in the Western World for some reason) but I've had a thing for Pfeiffer since Grease 2, and if the film's older woman/younger man story line is a little too trendy for words at the moment (screw you, Demi Moore! Bite me, Courtney Cox's new sitcom!!!) it has the virtue of being based on the works of the great Colette, who was writing about the whole Cougar thing almost a century before it was cool. Plus Anita Pallenberg, the iconic 60s babe who boinked all five of the original Rolling Stones is in there somewhere, so I figured it might be worth a look.

You know -- how bad could it be?

The plot:

The place: Belle Époque Paris. Ravishing but past her prime courtesan Léa (Pfeiffer), former muse to the rich and famous, is contemplating her retirement options when archrival Madame Charlotte (Kathy Bates -- interesting casting, that) asks her to teach Fred (Rupert Friend), her spoiled rotten 19-year-old son (nicknamed Chéri), about women. What follows is a six-year affair whose intensity surprises them both (a fact complicated by the fact that the kid is a flamboyant esthete who wears silk pyjamas and Léa's pearls). But they both believe the relationship is casual until the kid is forced into an arranged marriage, at which point they realize (how do you say "duh!" in French?) they're actually in love. The remainder of the film is, as it says on the video box, " an adventure in which a boy who refuses to grow up collides with a woman who realizes she cannot stay young forever." Spoiler alert: This being a French story, it will not come as a complete shock that when Chéri finally figures out Léa was the only woman he could ever truly love, he does the only sensible thing and offs himself.

Okay, cutting to the chase, the answer to our earlier question is "Given the talent involved both on and off the screen, rather disappointingly not so good." On the plus side, the thing looks gorgeous, with several scenes staged like Post-Impressionist paintings come to life, and there's a truly lovely Neo-Classical score by Alexandre Desplat that adds immeasurably to the mood of languid, genteel decadence. Mostly, though, it's the kind of film that seems to consist mainly of unrealistically attractive people sitting around half-clothed exchanging brittle witticisms and eating strawberries, and as beautiful as Pfeiffer looks, she's (putting it kindly) out of her depth in the role; you're painfully conscious that you're watching somebody born and bred in California, if you know what I mean.

Here's the trailer to give you a vague idea of what an attractive misfire the whole thing is, although trust me -- the movie itself is nowhere near as light-hearted and comic.

The Miramax DVD version features a basically state of the art transfer; extras include the de rigeur deleted scenes (negligible) and the even more de rigeur making-of documentary (even more negligible).

In any case, you can (and I wouldn't necessarily ring your doorbell and run if you did) order Cheri over here.

UPDATED: Weekend Estimates

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:26:45 -0800

Sunday Morning Update (10:26 a.m. PT): Even though it didn't live up to expectations, Michael Jackson's This Is It has grossed a solid $101 million worldwide since opening last Wednesday. Click here to read this weekend's full report.

Saturday Morning Update (10:30 a.m. PT): Michael Jackson's This Is It is set to top the box office this weekend, but the highly anticipated concert documentary will fall short of its massive pre-release expectations. Meanwhile, Paranormal Activity is on pace for a very strong second place finish. Click here to read the full report.

Thursday Afternoon Update (3:00 p.m. PT): Michael Jackson's This Is It debuted with $7.45 million on Wednesday. While that was a solid gross for a weekday in October, it represented a slower start than was originally expected. As a result, expectations for the weekend have been downgraded, but This Is It should still win the weekend by a comfortable margin.

Paramount will expand Paranormal Activity into an additional 457 locations this weekend, which should allow the film to hold up rather nicely once again.

Check out our final Top 10 predictions in the table below.

	Weekend Predictions: October 30 to November 1, 2009
	Title	Gross (M)	Cume (M)	Locations	Inc./Dec.
1	Michael Jackson's This Is It	$38.0	$50.0	3,481	New
2	Paranormal Activity	$16.5	$84.7	2,402	+457
3	Law Abiding Citizen	$7.7	$51.8	2,764	-126
4	Where the Wild Things Are	$7.3	$64.0	3,645	-90
5	Couples Retreat	$6.5	$87.0	3,027	-47
6	Saw VI	$6.0	$23.2	3,036	0
7	The Stepfather	$3.7	$25.0	2,346	-388
8	Astro Boy	$3.5	$11.4	3,020	+6
9	Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant	$3.4	$11.1	2,754	0
10	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	$3.3	$119.1	2,322	-419

Multiplexes across the country will be dominated by a deceased musical icon this weekend as Sony unleashes Michael Jackson's This Is It at 3,400 locations.

The film has already grossed $2.2 million from midnight shows and its Wednesday and Thursday numbers promise to be strong heading into what is bound to be a record-breaking weekend. This Is It should easily trump the $31.1 million debut of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour. which currently holds the record for the best opening weekend of any concert film. The Disney release was also billed as a limited engagement before hanging around in theaters for 15 weeks and grossing $65.3 million. According to various exhibition sources, Sony probably will almost certainly leave the This Is It in theaters for more than the planned two-week period.

Online sales for This Is It have remained consistently strong. The film landed in the #15 spot on MovieTickets.com's Top 25 Advance Ticket Sellers of All Time list, and as of 3 p.m. PT it's responsible for 70 percent of daily sales. On Fandango.com, the film is the #3 seller of the year, and as of 2 p.m. PT This Is It is responsible for 72 percent of daily sales. According to Harry Medved of Fandango, there has been an increase in sales since positive reviews started popping up online.

"This Is It is really hitting in all demographic groups at Flixster," says John Singh, a spokesperson for the site. "If there's a soft spot it's older males—but at the same time, one of the audiences showing the biggest interest is under-25 males. It's certainly the movie with the highest want-to-see at Flixster this weekend, by far, with overall activity up 160% over last week."

Based on how its performing already, it seems likely that This Is It will bring in $48 million from Friday to Sunday and a five-day total of $77 million. The rush to see the film will also mean that its grosses are going to be very front loaded, so a steady decline after this weekend is likely.

With audiences taking part in Halloween activities, the atmosphere is still ideal for another strong weekend from Paranormal Activity. Paramount's word-of-mouth success showed its strength in a major way last weekend by trumping Saw VI at the box office. PA will maintain a lot of that momentum this weekend, and it will represent a viable alternative for moviegoers who are not big Michael Jackson fans.

Expect PA to add another $15 million to its impressive haul. Reaching the $100 million plateau looks like a sure thing at this point for the little horror movie that could.

After being upset by Paranormal Activity last weekend, Saw VI should suffer a significant drop of at least 55 percent during its sophomore frame. The latest installment of the popular series will make around $6 million this weekend. Lionsgate is probably crossing its fingers and hoping that the franchise's audience will return for Saw VII in 3D next year.

Check back tomorrow for our Top 10 weekend predictions as well as official location counts.

Additional reporting by Daniel Garris.

'This Is It' Posts Solid Worldwide Haul

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:20:50 -0800

According to studio weekend estimates, Michael Jackson's This Is It finished in first place this weekend with a modest domestic haul of $21.3 million. The concert film has grossed $32.5 million domestically since opening last Wednesday, which is way below industry expectations. Online sales for the film had been incredibly strong and general interest levels seemed to be much higher than the box office results have ultimately shown.

Luckily, This Is It's international haul is quite impressive. According to Sony, it has already grossed $68.5 million internationally, which gives the concert film a worldwide cume of $101 million. That makes This Is It the most successful concert film of all time since the previous record holder, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, had a lifetime worldwide gross of $71.3 million.

Sony has already extended This Is It's planned two-week run so that it can play through Thanksgiving weekend.

Paranormal Activity continues to draw audiences in. The Paramount release grabbed $16.5 million during its sixth weekend in theaters, and it will easily cross the $100 million mark before the end of its run.

Saw VI is dropping like a stone. The Lionsgate release fell an unhealthy 61 percent during its sophomore frame. While the horror film will still end up making a profit, it's not nearly as successful as its predecessors.

Overture's Law Abiding Citizen is holding its audience quite well, and it's turned out to be the most successful film in the young distributor's history.

Overall box office receipts should total around $87 million this weekend, which puts it 1.5 percent behind the same weekend last year. 2009's total domestic haul is now 7.5 percent ahead of 2008's at the exact same point in the year.

Check back tomorrow for weekend actuals.

Additional reporting by Daniel Garris.

Weekly Anticipation Index

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:54:38 -0800

This weekend, we are adding five new films to the Anticipation Index. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakqual, It's Complicated and Sherlock Holmes are all debuting wide on December 25, while Nine and Up in the Air will expand after opening in limited release.

20th Century Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakqual is easily the favorite to win over the crowded holiday weekend. The original film brought in a staggering $217.3 million in 2007, making it one of the year's surprise hits. The new installment should be able to improve upon that number considering that it has added the Chipette characters, three girl chipmunks who will give the film more of an appeal among young female audiences.

Robert Downey Jr. lends his new-found clout to Sherlock Holmes. While Holmes won't bring in Iron Man-level numbers, it will be able to succeed due to a familiarity audiences will feel even if they haven't read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original novels.

It's Complicated boasts the deadlypotent triple team of Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Adult audiences will take their children to see The Squeakual during the day before catching this Universal release at night.

The success of Nine and Up in the Air depends in large part upon how well they are reviewed as well as how much awards recognition they receive. Up in the Air has already won glowing reviews on the festival circuit, which means that it's almost guaranteed a spot among the 10 Best Picture nominees at this point. Nine's cast is easily one of the most impressive of the fall. Daniel Day-Lewis is backed up by an all-star female ensemble filled with the likes of Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson and even Sophia Loren. There are enough talented actresses in Nine to fill the entire Best Supporting Actress category, so nominations are imminent.

Check out our predictions for these films as well as others in the table below.

Weekly Anticipation Index, October 31, 2009
Title	Release Date	Distributor	Opening Weekend	Cumulative
Disney's A Christmas Carol	November 6	Disney	$47M	$175M
The Box	November 6	Warner Bros.	$12M	$33M
The Fourth Kind	November 6	Universal	$15M	$40M
The Men Who Stare at Goats	November 6	Overture	$12M	$43M
2012	November 13	Sony	$62M	$155M
The Twilight Saga: New Moon	November 20	Summit	$98M	$250M
Planet 51	November 20	Sony	$16M	$50M
The Blind Side	November 20	Warner Bros.	$13M	$43M
Old Dogs	November 25	Disney	$24M	$85M
Fantastic Mr. Fox	November 25	Fox	$20M	$65M
The Road	November 25	The Weinstein Company	$12M	$35M
Ninja Assassin	November 25	Warner Bros.	$11M	$30M
Everybody's Fine	December 4	Miramax	$13M	$43M
Armored	December 4	Screen Gems	$11M	$30M
Brothers	December 4	Lionsgate	$10M	$28M
The Princess and the Frog	December 11	Disney	$22M	$110M
Invictus	December 11	Warner Bros.	$17M	$75M
Avatar	December 18	20th Century Fox	$65M	$195M
Did You Hear About the Morgans?	December 18	Sony/Columbia	$21M	$90M
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakqual	December 25	Fox	$50M	$225M
Sherlock Holmes	December 25	Warner Bros.	$30M	$115M
It's Complicated	December 25	Universal	$20M	$90M
Nine	December 25 (wide)	The Weinstein Company	$12M	$65M
Up in the Air	December 25 (wide)	Paramount	$10M	$65M

Additional reporting by Daniel Garris.

‘This Is It’ on Pace for #1, but Softer than Expected

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:20:01 -0800

According to BOXOFFICE.com’s Early Weekend Estimates, Michael Jackson’s This Is It will win the weekend box office with an estimated $21.5 million. Sony’s concert documentary centered on the last rehearsals of the late pop icon experienced a solid Friday jump, but Friday’s spike in attendance wasn’t nearly strong enough to make up for the film’s modest start on Wednesday and Thursday. This Is It is on course for a five-day start in the area of $33 million. Under normal circumstances that would be a great start for either a concert film or a documentary, but the figure is somewhat underwhelming in this case given the reported $60 million Sony spent to acquire the film’s rights and the fact that This Is It is currently scheduled for a limited engagement window of only two weeks.

Paramount’s Paranormal Activity continues to impress, as it is on pace for a very nice second place performance over Halloween weekend. The ultra low-budget horror film should scare up roughly $18 million for the weekend. That places it within shouting distance of This Is It for the weekend, which is something that simply wasn’t expected this time a week ago. The cume for Paranormal Activity will stand at just over $86 million at the end of the weekend, though the film could fall off much faster going forward once the build up to Halloween is behind it.

It should be a close race for third place between Overture’s Law Abiding Citizen and Universal’s Couples Retreat. With Law Abiding Citizen likely to be the more popular Halloween choice of the two, look for it to edge out Couples Retreat just slightly for the three-day frame.

Despite having Halloween appeal, both Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are and Lionsgate’s Saw VI are on course to experience large weekend declines. The films will occupy fifth and sixth places this weekend and both should continue to fade away very quickly in the days and weeks after Halloween.

The Fall

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:41:28 -0800

Not to be confused with Tarsem's sweeping 2006 fairy tale epic of the same name, independent crime drama The Fall features a mostly-talented cast doing good work and surprisingly striking visuals given the film's $500,000 budget. Yet, the film fails to weave any particularly intriguing twists and turns from dark secrets past and present, and it ultimately rushes towards an abrupt conclusion. It's a good first film for debuting writer/director John Krueger; the kind that shows promise but ultimately leads to better things. It seems likely that any audiences enjoying The Fall will be more likely to do so on home video or cable television than to pay to see the film in theaters.

Brothers Tony and Frank Jakubiak (Benny Ciaramello and Scott Kinworthy, respectively) are leading wildly different lives. Tony is on the verge of moving in with his disfigured, former-junkie girlfriend, Mery Beth (Erica Hoag), while he looks for construction work that doesn't require a high school diploma. Frank, meanwhile, is about to become a judge, and he and his wife Brooke (Erica Shaffer) are thinking about babies and a run for governor. One night, two old ladies and a priest leaving church bingo are assaulted for their winnings, and a priest is murdered. Through a mysterious series of events, Tony ends up on the scene and arrested for the crime, and it's up to Frank to try and pry the truth about where he really was and why before his brother defiantly allows himself to be convicted and jailed.

As the two brothers, Ciaramello and Kinworthy form a believable pair: Kinworthy has good screen presence and solid delivery, playing a likable protagonist, but Ciaramello in particular takes a character that might be plainly annoying—angry, standoffish and determined to hide something from both the other characters and the audience—and manages to stay not just engaging but even fitfully appealing.

Unfortunately, the movie's big secret amounts to boring soap-opera dramatics that don't seem likely to shock anyone. Early in the film, Frank gives a speech at a fancy dinner party about his brother, and the audience listening is audibly taken aback to hear that Tony was a heroin user. Not to diminish hard drug problems, but in this day and age, it's hard to buy that even the distinguished upper class would gasp out loud at something so straightforward. The betrayal at the heart of The Fall is more shocking than heroin, and in real life it would undoubtedly rattle everyone involved, but the silver screen demands more compelling plot than this movie has to offer. The film's conclusion feels like it's missing a scene where the characters take more action, cutting to credits while the audience is still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Krueger directs with admirable, TNT-level gloss for the money spent, and The Fall will at least appear striking on the big screen; even if it lacks the gloss and production value of a major Hollywood movie, it looks far better than some independent films since the dawn of digital. The Fall may be mediocre, but with more money and a better script, Krueger should find himself behind the wheel of some better thrillers in the future.

Distributor: Dangerous Wounded Animals
Cast: William Devane, Benny Ciaramello, Scott Kinworthy, Erica Shaffer, Peter Cillela and Erica Hoag
Director/Screenwriter: John Krueger
Producer: Marcienne Friesland
Genre: Drama
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 118 min.
Release date: October 30 LA

Z

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:09:40 -0800

There is a moment near the conclusion of Greek director Costa-Gavras’ 1969 film Z that is truly dejecting. This event follows the government-involved assassination of a political spokesman—a figure roughly based on Greek politician Gregoris Lambrakis— known simply as the Deputy/Doctor (Yves Montand). It also follows an impassioned, futile investigation by the Examining Magistrate (Jean-Louis Trintignant), the deaths of key anti-establishment witnesses, conspiracy laden resolves, more murder, and the censorship of all things expressive. It is in this moment, after all the story’s horrors transpire, that the Deputy’s widow is supposedly consoled. Told that her husband lives on, made evident by a gathering crowd of supporters, she feigns a comforted smile. To his loyalists, his spirit indeed endures, but they knew him as a delegatory agent of the political ideal. His wife lost a husband. She lost a man, a lover, a caretaker. Through this notion, Gavras’ film becomes painful in its irony. The film’s title—which is a variation of the Greek support cry, “He (Lambrakis) lives”—implies a dichotomy of agenda, as even the Deputy’s appreciably depicted followers come to dehumanize his existence. This begs questions of symbolic identity and the essential function of the person, the answers to which Gavras wisely impresses with shades of grey.

After forewarning the audience with a cheeky disclaimer aimed to qualify the film as a reflection of real events and people, Gavras opens with the final minutes of a government lecture—a droll gathering where officials parallel the dangers of bacterial infestation with the dangers of free-thinking ideological infestations. As bacteria threatens plant life, so too do these ideas threaten their corresponding host body: society. The presence of the government officials is authoritatively imposing, yet their self-perpetuating acclaim comes with an air of righteous entitlement. To paraphrase, it’s pretty clear that they’re bad guys—highly decorated ones—whose interests lie in helping other bad guys.

The aforementioned assassination takes place amongst the aftermath of a peace rally and illustrates the very same collusive corruption the Deputy had just spoken against. Whilst attempting to ford a crowd, comprised of advocates and adversaries alike, he beckons to the commandant for help, but is ignored. In this moment of abandonment he is struck down by what’s ostensibly a drunk driver, though the viewer is clued in otherwise—the Deputy becomes a martyr for his cause. It is then that the narrative contorts into a series of recollections by different characters, in which Gavras dutifully unfolds the events of that night. A premium is placed on perspectivism, namely how the depiction of the event in question varies so much from person to person (Kurosawa says you're welcome). Through this, the film expounds on the power of influence, be it political, social, or economical. As the Examining Magistrate begins piecing the fractured story together, the already brisk pacing and punctuated editing ups the ante by injecting its story with an emotional fervor. This tonal shift works to insinuate how the direness of this injustice must sustain the bureaucratic frustration that comes with unmasking such high-level conspirators. In this, the movie demonstrates a remarkable cohesion of function and form; its foundational confidence makes its human issues all the more affecting and, ultimately, heartbreaking.

Extras

Criterion continues with their usual M.O. of supplementing their releases with concise, relevant extra footage. A one-disc set, Z's special features are hardly comprehensive, but they are of insight. Two 2009 interviews highlight the featurettes, one from acclaimed cinematographer Raoul Coutard and the other with Gavras himself. The former speaks generally about the director-photographer relation before delving into the details surrounding his experience with Gavras. He compares the Greek's directorial style and kinetic lens to that of Godard, though contrasts their uses of space and overall approach to day-by-day shooting. Coutard even involves the fortune of having a capable cast, as they can turn a rather meticulous shooting process into something more expressive and wonderful. Naturally, Gavras is not without his charm either, and does well in relating his technical choices to how they're meant to convey the showiness that people like with the resonance people love.

‘This Is It’ Leads Thursday

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:22:54 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It led the box office for a second straight day on Thursday with a daily gross of $3.76 million. The concert documentary from Sony was down 49 percent from its opening day performance on Wednesday. That represented a solid hold, especially since the film’s opening day gross was inflated from its midnight screenings. This Is It has grossed $11.21 million in its first two days of release. While that represents a significantly weaker than expected start, This Is It could still pick up greatly over the weekend from the simple fact that midweek movie-going attendance is relatively soft in October. However, This Is It will also face a major hurdle on Saturday, as Halloween usually hurts the box office of non-horror films when it falls on the weekend.

Paramount’s Paranormal Activity was up a healthy 11 percent from Wednesday to remain in second place with $1.63 million. The R-rated horror film was aided yesterday by both the approaching Halloween holiday and by the decrease in attendance for This Is It (most other films in wide release were likely aided by both of those factors as well). Paranormal Activity was the week’s highest grossing film with $27.76 million, which represented a 3 percent increase over last week. Paranormal Activity has grossed $68.24 million through five weeks and is set to see another strong performance this weekend, especially with the addition of another 457 locations.

Law Abiding Citizen remained in third place with $0.93 million. The R-rated action-thriller from Overture was up 2 percent from Wednesday and down 39 percent from last Thursday. Law Abiding Citizen finished in fourth place for the week with $16.48 million. That represented a 40 percent slide and brings the film’s two-week total to a better than expected $44.08 million.

Where the Wild Things Are held steady in fourth place with $0.77 million. Warner’s expensive adaption of the popular children’s book was up 7 percent from Wednesday, but still down 50 percent from last Thursday. For the week Where the Wild Things Are finished in third with $17.18 million, but that was down a very discouraging 57 percent from the film’s opening weekend performance. Where the Wild Things Are has grossed $56.72 million in 14 days.

The disappointing start for Lionsgate’s Saw VI continued on Thursday as the horror sequel slid one spot to finish in sixth. Saw VI grossed $0.69 million for the day, which brings the film’s one-week total to a lackluster $17.26 million. That places Saw VI 52 percent behind the pace of last year’s Saw V.

The Wedding Song/ Le chant des mariées

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:18:16 -0800

The heartfelt themes of faith, Jewish-Muslim tolerance and sexual awakening make Tunisian-French filmmaker Karin Albou's coming of age drama, The Wedding Song, a standout specialty release. Albou's sophomore feature should be guaranteed enthusiastic reviews and strong word of mouth. An unknown cast, with the exception of French actor Simon Abkarian (Casino Royale), and a director still gaining a profile in the U.S. will keep box office modest during the most competitive season for specialty films. Instead, The Wedding Song will win admirers on home video, help introduce Albou to new audiences and bring added prestige to Strand's release slate.

Muslim teen Nour (Olympe Borval) is best friends with her Jewish neighbor Myriam (Lizzie Brocheré). They share everything, especially details about their upcoming arranged marriages; Nour to her handsome cousin Khaled (Najib Oudghiri) and Myriam to a wealthy Jewish doctor (Abkarian).

It's November 1942 and the German Army has entered the Tunsian capital Tunis. They quickly implement policies used by France's Vichy government and fine members of the Jewish community. The Germans also outlaw many of the Jews from working, which means Myriam's mother, Tita (Albou), can no longer take care of her. As anti-Jewish propaganda increases in Tunis, Myriam and Nour grow apart. War has made the future of their once-strong friendship unclear.

Albou’s previous feature, La Petite Jerusalem, successfully played numerous Jewish film festivals throughout the U.S. Wedding Song is her first film to play U.S. arthouses and is an intelligent, well-crafted, emotionally riveting breakout film that will earn her deserved acclaim with specialty audiences. Camille Cotte provides quality editing that gives the film a swift pace. Cinematographer Laurent Brunet makes full use of the film's exotic setting; from the narrow city alleyways, busy street markets and the public bath for women. Every scene sparkles.

Albou even steps in front of the camera to give a strong performance as Myriam's struggling mother. Her scenes with Brocheré are some of the best in the film.

Olympe Borval is sympathetic as the young Muslim girl who loves her fiancé and finds it all too easy to accept his collaboration with the German army. Lizzie Brocheré gives the most dynamic performance in the film. She's an innocent forced to make drastic changes involving her best friend, a new husband and her fears regarding the sexual expectations placed on a new bride. It's worth noting that Albou handles the sexual elements of her young leads with impressive delicacy—especially the scenes involving the "oriental" treatment of a bride on her wedding night.

Marketing that focuses on the feminist and female friendship themes and draws comparisons to acclaimed dramas like My Summer of Love and Aimee and Jaguar will build outreach to female audiences. At the very least, Wedding Song will gain larger audiences on home video and build U.S. recognition for the talented Albou.

Distributor: Strand Releasing
Cast: Lizzie Brocheré, Olympe Borval, Najib Oudghiri, Simon Abkarian and Karin Albou
Director/Screenwriter: Karin Albou
Producer: Isabelle Pragier and Laurent Lavole
Genre: Drama; Arabic, French and German-languages, subtitled
Running time: 97 min.
Release date: October 9 SF, October 23, NY, November 6 L.A.

A Single Man

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:56:49 -0800

Fashion designer Tom Ford establishes himself as a filmmaker to celebrate from the very first sequence of his artfully constructed, heartfelt adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel A Single Man. The story of closeted literature professor George Falconer (Colin Firth), a middle-aged man in 1962 who faces a depression after the accidental death of his longtime lover Jim (Matthew Goode), A Single Man is a standout debut for Ford and a strong addition for The Weinstein Company which purchased the film during the Toronto International Film Festival. Featuring a subtle but heartbreaking performance from Colin Firth as Falconer and solid support from Julianne Moore as Falconer's longtime friend Charley, A Single Man is a breakout achievement for Ford and a beautiful human drama sure to appeal to arthouse moviegoers. Fans of Ford's fashion work will seek out the film, and strong word of mouth and award considerations for Firth, Moore and Ford will help the film crossover to mainstream audiences, much as Brokeback Mountain did four years ago.

After designing the suits for Daniel Craig's performance as James Bond in Quantum of Solace, Ford makes his directing debut with A Single Man. The film begins powerfully on a snow-covered Colorado highway, a dream image from Falconer's subconscious. Falconer's day comes full circle by the film's climactic finale, another dream sequence that may be too dreamlike for its own good, but still makes an emotional impact.

It comes as no surprise that Ford, a designer of the highest order, has made a film as detailed and stunning as A Single Man. Eduard Grau makes perfect use of the film's 1962 setting and Falconer's modern glass house in Laurel Canyon. In one scene, the camera rests on Falconer's face between the slats of wood on the house's exterior wall. In that single image one sees so much about Falconer, a man who celebrates his life and yet, as is appropriate for the time and place, must remain very private. The screenplay from Ford and David Scearce tweaks Isherwood's novel respectfully and makes Falconer one of the more interesting male characters in many movies.

Single Man may be a drama about the death of a loved one but the film is fresh, elegant and very much alive. With beautiful backdrops, a perfect use of period music and engaging characters, Single Man is movie melodrama in the best use of the phrase.

It helps that Colin Firth, who received a best actor award at Venice for the role, gives the most subtle and emotional performance of his career, eclipsing his acclaimed work in Pride and Prejudice. Firth’s Falcone is a man with strong beliefs who is slowly losing his zest for life due to emotional crisis. He's extremely likable and of course, brilliantly stylish; as such he’s even more tragic.

Julianne Moore’s role as Falconer's longtime friend and fellow British ex-pat Charley will invite comparisons to another period drama, Far From Heaven. It's good company for Ford since both films can claim stylish elements from Douglas Sirk movies, precise period details and standout performances.

The Weinstein Company has an expected hit with A Single Man, a film that will likely exceed the box office of Far From Heaven and with awards nominations may match the phenomenon of Brokeback Mountain, another drama about tragic love.

Distributor: The Weinstein Company
Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode and Ginnifer Goodwin
Director: Tom Ford
Screenwriter: Tom Ford and David Scearce
Producers: Tom Ford, Andrew Miano, Robert Salerno and Chris Weitz
Rating: TBD
Running time: 105 min.
Release Date: December 11 ltd., December 25 exp.

'MIB 3' Moving Forward

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:25:42 -0800

Source: THR

Yet another popular property is going to be resurrected. Sony has hired Tropic Thunder's Etan Cohen to pen the script for a third installment. Director Barry Sonnenfeld and stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have yet to commit.

The original Men in Black grossed $250.7 million in 1997, which translates to around $392.1 million when adjusted for inflation. 2002's sequel raked in $190.4 million—$235.7 million when adjusted.

Labor Day

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:14:08 -0800

Is it fair to peddle a 76-minute public service announcement [PSA] with a few journalist and musician cameos slipped slip in, and call it a documentary? It’s a free country, sure; but beware of this lop-sided equation. Labor Day, the home-video styled retelling of the success of the Obama Campaign tails union volunteers stumping for the first ever African-American U.S. President. Yet it’s too conceited. This product lacks the “pow” to justify any major turnout or theatrical expansion beyond the two metropolises whose populations already watched most of this stuff on CSPAN and don’t have amnesia.

There’s nothing wrong with assigning a film crew to go out and chronicle the road to the White House through the union workers’ perspective. There’s a story there. However, shooting a self-fulfilling prophecy without showing any dissent or snags in the stitching degrades the effort. That’s the major drawback of Labor Day. The film shadows SEIU (Service Employees International Union), a player in the political cosmos repping doormen, nurses, home attendants and security guards amongst others. The purple-shirted boots-on-the-ground shout: “One more block for Barack” and are bolstered by seven-figure funding to get out the vote.

Two-million-plus members picked their pony and began to mobilize in the streets. Armies of volunteers granted leave from their jobs and families hawk Obama’s change mandate and sacrifice dearly to get him into the Commander-in-Chief’s office. In the mix are vast swaths of personalities. There’s the window washer with the goat-tee who’s excited because he’s never done anything political whatsoever or the Latina nurse from New York City who believes this is her calling. Even union higher-ups pound pavement with their brothers and sisters to recruit Obama voters in swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana and various others.
The personalities showcased are sincere. And tack on a couple interviews with Time Magazine and Newsweek political staffers as well as injecting quick interviews with performers at a Minneapolis Take Back Labor Day concert (including Mos Def and Steve Earle) and there’s certainly enough support to lend labor gravitas.

Still, there is at no point a single volunteer throwing up his or her hands after a shoddy day. No heated arguments. Not a pill popped to quell the throbbing headache. No opinion seems to stray from the talking points. Everybody’s giddy to stump. Everyday. This makes the film feel padded and rinsed. Is the director solely trying to please his subjects?

There may be little to say with regard to the film’s mechanics. Sound’s good, and the DP shot a steady frame. But the subject matter becomes more and more elusive. So does Obama. Early on, he’s in the living room of the house and you feel close to the action; shortly after he’s a speck under the stadium lights while the camera captures from the nosebleed section.

When Barack Obama became President Obama, the nation and world were witness to the underdog who outthought and outfought his competitors through every scuffle—street or sanctioned. The troops in the trenches surely played their part. But if you watch Labor Day you’d think that one union alone was the reason for this victory. It’s clear they worked hard but the ensemble casts deserve credit too. There was an economic crisis and the bigger picture to this win, there were two previously dismal terms and a promise that there could be a new and brighter tomorrow with a shakeup at the top. The hard work is still ahead and while the union will continue to fight on they may want to open their doors to alternative perspectives come the next documentary pitch. This one doesn’t do much justice.

Distributor: Independent
Director: Glenn Silber
Producers: Claudia Vianello and Glenn Silber
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 76 min.
Release date: October 30 ltd.

A Sequel's Rough Road

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:17:47 -0800

It's rare that a filmmaker already has enough controversy under his belt after filming a single movie to fill several "E! True Hollywood Stories", but writer/director Troy Duffy is that man.

Ten years ago, Duffy's film The Boondock Saints, was limping into five theaters for a one-week engagement, a pale shadow of the release Miramax might have afforded him had he managed to stay with the studio. The 28-year-old bartender originally brokered a deal with studio chief Harvey Weinstein to not only buy Duffy's screenplay and let him direct, but also gave Duffy's band The Brood (later renamed The Boondock Saints) money to record an album and even bought the bar where Duffy worked, splitting ownership right down the middle. Unfortunately, Duffy's reportedly volatile attitude -- as seen in the independent documentary Overnight—caused the equally temperamental Weinstein to put the film in turnaround and cancel the album deal. Eventually, Duffy struck a new deal with producer Elie Samaha for far less money and managed to get the violent action movie made, only to earn a dismal $25,812 from those five screens (against its $7 million budget) in the wake of the Columbine massacre.

Over the course of the decade since the film's first extremely limited engagement, The Boondock Saints was nabbed as a Blockbuster exclusive rental title in what turned out to be the first step on the road to cult movie status. Today, the movie has 72,735 user ratings on the Internet Movie Database (more than, say, Sunset Boulevard or Lawrence of Arabia), and fans have filled the theaters for several national "event" screening of the director's cut held digitally by NCM Fathom. This weekend, after several false starts and years of rumors, the now 38-year-old Duffy is back with The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, reuniting original stars Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery and Billy Connolly as the title characters, and the big question is: will the first film's devoted fanbase actually translate into legitimate business?

Scanning the boards at BoondockFans.com, what from the outside might appear to be a bustling community feels more like a ghost town. On the very first page in the series' discussion forum (where topics about the new film would theoretically be found), there are threads that haven't been bumped since August, while a "sticky" thread at the top titled "Latest Update From Troy" contains a YouTube video uploaded in 2006 and the last post is from December 2008. The movie's official site at BoondockSaints.com doesn't seem much better, prominently displaying an ad for the 2-disc DVD of the film that 20th Century Fox put out in May 2006 (as opposed to the 2009 Blu-Ray edition), with nary a word about the new film on the main page (a few cursory references are hidden away under the "History" tab in the "About the Movie" section). It's possible Fox runs the site and doesn't want to support a competing studio's film (Sony will be releasing the Stage6-produced sequel on DVD), but it still seems a little strange.

Meanwhile, over at the film's official YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/realboondocksaints), view counts rise and fall. A video documenting Day 1 of the Saints II shoot boasts 75,279 views, but the last-day video has less than half that (23,660), and the final post-production video only manages a measly 6,125 views. Duffy seems fairly congenial in these videos, no doubt hoping that enough online presence will help to clear the air left by Overnight (which Duffy first claimed he'd never see but recently begun trashing in interviews with Entertainment Weekly and Slashfilm.com, calling it "boring" and labeling it a "smear campaign"), but there's still an air of edginess about him, as if he's anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This weekend, the sequel opens at 68 theaters nationwide, a step up from 5 but far from the wide release fans might be hoping for. In response, Stage6 has put up a "Demand It!" page over at Eventful, no doubt looking to replicate even a tiny fraction of the success Paranormal Activity has managed to whip up in the last two months. The 14,452 "Demand It!" votes the film has as of this writing don't even begin to compare to the one million demands Paramount asked for—and swiftly received—before releasing Activity nationwide, which toppled the long-standing Saw series at the box office last weekend. On one hand, it doesn't seem like a rosy outlook, but on the other, it's impressive that despite his rocky reputation, Duffy managed to get both The Boondock Saints and its sequel into theaters anyway. Today, it looks like Troy Duffy may be in for another uphill battle, but maybe, just maybe, that's where he performs best.

One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Jack Kerouac’s Big Sir

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:34:18 -0800

This traditional doc is as much aboutBig Sur, Jack Kerouac’s memoir of a nervous breakdown, as it is about hipster adoration the book has curried over the decades since its release. One Fast Move or I’m Gone tries to match the book’s poetics but gets mired in celebrity conjecture about the writer. Occasionally the lyrics and the film’s lyricism sync up, which is nice, but those moments seldom suck you further into the film. The inclusion of a few great notables from the era (particularly Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Neal Cassidy’s widow, Carolyn) add a sincerity of purpose to the film that’s otherwise absent, even in the sweet and genuine recitations from the book by characters like singer/songwriter Dar Williams. The film, along with a limited edition DVD box set that includes a copy of the book, previously unseen author photos, an excerpt of the unpublished manuscript and the film’s soundtrack, are set for a release coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Kerouac’s death. The choice of this benchmark seems to match the film’s haphazardly macabre tone in its romanticizing of Kerouac’s battles with God, culture, fame and the bottle. Still, his fans persist and small numbers will roll out to see this reverential celebration of a writer and his work.

According to One Fast Move, The New York Times book review of On the Road transformed Kerouac from a struggling writer into the voice of the Beats and their generation. The effusiveness of this moniker (‘the voice of the Beats’) is terribly ill fitting for a man whose prose was both concise and biting. Kerouac’s fame had an erosive effect on him; his peers credited it for his increasing reliance on alcohol. Everyone wanted to buy the Voice of the Beats a drink. Kerouac escaped the fame (he uses words like goop and gook) in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s cabin at Big Sur.

Big Sur is the less popular book the hipsters dig; the one that followed On the Road, always carries the din of discovery and could conceivably illuminate “the real Jack” to its readership. While its text seems so spare and direct, so interested in reaching some possibly unreachable root system beneath us, the book’s admirers are all aflutter with moody perspectives on ephemera and this “Jack” they think they know. This is one of those instances where a band’s fans can really kill the music for you. Worse, their musings offer sacred little insight. This dearth of useful information about the book leaves us with little more than a fanboy reverence for the writer’s caché. If it’s true that Kerouac’s fame is what killed him, the filmmaker’s preoccupation with it borders distasteful.

Kerouac was (as Tom Waits describes him) contradictory, he was (according to Donal Logue) near the end of his religion and, according to Amber Tamblyn, he was funny. It isn’t that these personalities lack authority, it’s that their authority is couched in their celebrity and not much more. The artists that speak about Kerouac are like his flipside: their celebrity is no apparent detriment to them and their fringe status is no great rebellion. They might have been precisely the people who’d offer to buy him a drink and that’s ultimately confusing. It’s only appropriate, in service of exploring zeitgeist, to allow modern artists to comment on the work of their predecessors, but this film leaves you feeling like the work everyone is doing for it, regardless of the heft of Death Cab for Cutie or Dar Williams, is missing precisely that root system Kerouac was mining, and they don’t seem to be too specifically concerned about it.

Distributor: D&E Entertainment
Director: Curt Worden
Producer: Gloria Bailen and Jim Sampas
Genre: Documentary
Running time: 98 min.
Release date: October 15 NY, October 20 ltd.

Dennis Hopper Battling Prostate Cancer

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:32:24 -0800

Source: AP

Dennis Hopper has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The 73-year-old actor is canceling all upcoming travel plans in order to focus on treatment, which he is undergoing through a "special program" at the University of Southern California.

Earlier this month, prior to the diagnosis announcement, Hopper was taken to a New York area hospital and treated for dehydration.

He recently finished filming the second season of Crash, a Starz network television version of the Oscar-winning movie. Hopper, a Kansas-born actor, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987 and 1970, and is known for his work in movies such as Speed , Apocalypse Now and Easy Rider

'Invictus' Push Begins

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:07:34 -0800

I certainly had fun watching the Yankees top the Phillies in the second game of the World Series last night, but seeing the trailer for Invictus came as a welcome bonus. The Warner Bros. release received a solid marketing push during the game.

Invictus looks and feels like a winner to me. If there's anybody who can pull of an inspirational sports movie without making it feel hokey and contrived, it's Clint Eastwood. It's going to be a true pleasure to watch Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon play off each other under his guidance.

The conventional wisdom among Oscar prognosticators and film enthusiasts is that Up in the Air is currently the film to beat for the Big Prize. I'd say that from this trailer alone, Invictus looks as though it could challenge that wisdom.

Hopkins Joins 'Thor' Cast

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:43:38 -0800

Source: Variety

Anthony Hopkins will star as Thor's father in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of the popular comic book property. The project is being housed at Paramount, and it's currently set for a May 20, 2011 release.

It's obvious that Paramount would like to see Thor achieve the same level of success as Iron Man. If that happens, the 71-year-old thesp could find himself in negotiations to star in sequels.

Hopkins has two new movies in the can. The Wolfman opens next February and Woody Allen's You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is also due in 2010.

Reese Witherspoon Attached to 'Rule #1'

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:43:14 -0800

Source: THR

Reese Witherspoon has signed on to star in and produce Rule #1, a Fox Screenlight picture about a New York woman who befriends a Puerto Rican girl with attention deficit disorder. Searchlight just acquired the screenplay from its writer, Terry Seltzer, who also wrote the How I Got Into College and co-wrote One Fine Day.

Through her production company, Type A Films, Witherspoon has produced such films as Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, Penelope and Four Christmases, and is also developing Around the World in 80 Dates at Universal.

Most recently, Witherspoon voiced the character of Susan Murphy/Ginormica Monsters vs. Aliens, which earned $374 million worldwide. She can be seen next alongside Paul Rudd in the untitled James L. Brooks film when it hits theaters in December 2010.

Weekend Cinema Listomania (Special Slacker Halloween Edition)

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:02:04 -0800

Actually, apologies everybody -- having just returned from a week's sojourn in the land of the Ignoble Frog, I'm frankly too laden with heavy sauces to get a standard WCL together. As a result, Listomania progamming -- hint: involving the fabulous new Criterion edition of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire -- will resume next Friday.

In the meantime, though, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a fun event for us all with a certain relevance to tomorrow's holiday.

I'm referring, more specifically, to tonight's streaming broadcast of the original Halloween shocker to end all Halloween shockers -- the Orson Welles radio dramatization of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds that scared the bejeezus out of unsuspecting Americans exactly 71 years ago this weekend.

(One of those Americans, I might add, was in fact my dad, who heard it in his dormroom at Texas A&M. Although years later told me he was too busy cramming for an exam to really worry about an extra-terrestrial invasion as long as it was happening in New Jersey.)

In any case, the broadcast is a promo tie-in with the forthcoming Me and Orson Welles -- in which High School Musical I-III irritant Zac Efron, fresh from the triumph that was 17 Again, attempts to show he can, uh, you know, act or something -- which will be unleashed at theaters all across our noble Republic on November 25.

Actually, the movie itself sounds pretty cool, if truth be told. Essentially, it's a reworking of My Favorite Year -- the story of a green kid who comes to NYC and gets a chance to work with his artistic idol, only in this case the idol is Boy Genius Welles (eerily impersonated by Christian McKay) rather than a pioneering TV comic based on Sid Caesar. And director Richard Linklater -- auteur of Slacker, School of Rock, and A Scanner Darkly --- is rarely less than interesting.

Here's the trailer, to give you an idea.

As far as the original Welles War of the Worlds broadcast goes, if you've never heard it you may be surprised on a number of levels. For one thing, it's a really terrific show, which is to say a wonderfully imaginative use of the radio medium. For another, with contemporary ears it's almost impossible to imagine that people actually thought it was a real newscast -- it has dramatic music and a voice-over narration, for heaven's sake. On the other hand, we all fell for that idiotic balloon boy hoax last week, so we probably shouldn't be smug about our current level of media savvy.

Incidentally, IMHO, the greatest single performance Welles ever gave was the morning-after press conference in which he apologized, with breathtaking insincerity, for causing the whole fuss. Alas, only this brief snippet is currently available on YouTube, but here it is; we should note for the record that the great man was probably speeding his brains out at the time, which adds several layers of irony.

In any event, you can -- and very definitely should -- listen to tonight's rebroadcast of the show over here; the chills begin promptly at 8:00 pm, (EST).

And remember -- keep watching the skies!

$7.45 Million Start for ‘This Is It’

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:33:57 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It comfortably led Wednesday’s daily box office with a debut of $7.45 million. However, the concert documentary showcasing the final rehearsals of the late pop icon opened well below the expectations of most, which were greatly inflated by the film’s tremendous pre-sales and two-week limited engagement window. This Is It grossed an estimated $2.2 million from midnight screenings, but was unable to sustain the momentum from that solid start throughout the rest of its opening day.

Given that films rarely open on a Wednesday in October, it is difficult to project the film’s five-day pace at this point and it is still possible that business for This Is It could really pick up over the weekend. But for that to happen, This Is It will need to perform exceptionally well on Friday, as its Saturday performance could be greatly limited by the Halloween holiday.

Although This Is It wasn’t as big as advertised on Wednesday, most holdovers were affected greatly nonetheless by the much hyped film. Paramount’s Paranormal Activity fell one spot and 14 percent from Tuesday to finish the day in second with $1.47 million. That still represented one of the day’s better daily holds among wide releases and the low-budget horror film was down just 11 percent from last Wednesday. Paranormal Activity has grossed $66.61 million in 34 days and is in good shape to experience a strong hold over the Halloween weekend.

Overture’s Law Abiding Citizen was down 23 percent and one spot from Tuesday to fall to third place. The action-thriller starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler grossed $0.91 million, which was down 41 percent from last Wednesday. Law Abiding Citizen (which is already Overture’s highest grossing film to date) has grossed $43.16 million through 13 days and could see another solid hold this weekend.

Warner's Where the Wild Things Are was down 15 percent from Tuesday and down a steep 54 percent from last Wednesday, but was still able to hold steady in fourth place. The Spike Jonze directed adaptation of the popular children’s book grossed $0.72 million, which brings its 20-day total to $55.95 million. Where the Wild Things Are opened strong, but has only been able to generate a total gross to opening weekend ratio of 1.71 to 1 thus far.

Lionsgate’s Saw VI was down one spot and a sharp 24 percent to finish in fifth. The R-rated horror sequel grossed $0.68 million and experienced the day’s largest daily decline among wide releases. That isn’t a good sign, especially after the film’s disappointing start last weekend. With Halloween falling on Saturday, the film’s second weekend fall could be softened somewhat, but Saw IV is on course to fade away very quickly from theatres regardless.

National Cinemedia (NCM) Expands Its National Theater Network with Three Cinema Advertising Affiliates – Cobb Theatres, Galaxy Theatres, LLC and Storyteller Theatres Corporation

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:28:24 -0800

Centennial, CO – National CineMedia LLC (NCM) has entered into network affiliate advertising agreements with Cobb Theatres, Galaxy Theatres, LLC and Storyteller Theatres Corporation for the presentation of pre-show advertising. Under the terms of the exclusive multi-year agreements, select Cobb, Galaxy and Storyteller movie theaters in eight states including Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming will exclusively present NCM’s pre-feature cinema advertising program, FirstLook.

The cinema advertising affiliate agreement with Cobb Theatres represents an extension of the movie theater chain’s current relationship with NCM as a network affiliate for NCM Fathom entertainment events. Cobb has been presenting NCM Fathom’s live and pre-recorded in-theater events including the critically acclaimed opera series The Met: Live in HD since January of 2009. The new cinema advertising affiliate agreements with Galaxy Theatres, LLC and Storyteller Theatres Corporation are also effective immediately.

These three exhibitors represent the most recent expansion of the NCM cinema network, which is the largest digital in-theater video and satellite distribution network in North America. Cobb Theatres, Galaxy Theatres, LLC and Storyteller Theatres Corporation currently operate a combined 23 theaters and 268 screens. The three theater circuits together represent an additional 9.1 million attendees for NCM.

“The additions of these theater circuits furthers our strategic goal of building a national digital theater network that can compete more effectively with existing national media networks,” said Kurt Hall, NCM’s president and chief executive officer. “In particular, Cobb, Galaxy and Storyteller have improved our coverage in key markets, allowing us to better compete for the advertising budgets of clients who require more ubiquitous reach.”

NCM currently has exclusive, long-term cinema advertising agreements in place with its founding member exhibitors, AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC), as well as network affiliate pacts with theater circuits such as Carolina Cinemas, Cobb Theatres, Georgia Theatre Company, Goodrich Quality Theaters, Hollywood Theaters, Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres, MJR Theatres, Picture Show Theatres, ShowBiz Cinemas, LLC and Starplex Cinemas, among others.

New 'Avatar' Trailer, Featurette and More

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:09:55 -0800

Source: Yahoo! Movies, ComingSoon

The all-new 3-minute, 30 second trailer for James Cameron's upcoming science-fiction/action epic Avatar that played in front of Saw VI last weekend is now online. The clip delves deeper into the film's plot and features far more dialogue and action than the previous teaser trailer.

A four-minute making-of featurette has also hit the net, detailing the extensive digital innovations Cameron has helped pioneer for the movie.

Finally, the film's official website has gone up at www.avatarmovie.com.

Avatar marks James Cameron's first dramatic feature film since he completed Titanic 12 years ago, which remains the all-time unadjusted domestic box office champion with a $600.7 million US take (just under $940 million when adjusted for inflation). The film opens on conventional screens, 3D screens and IMAX 3D screens on December 18th.

Biel Becomes 'Engaged'

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:35:55 -0800

Source: THR

Jessica Biel has found a new project, and its title alone is bound to generate controversy. The young starlet will appear in F***ing Engaged, a raunchy comedy about a couple who agrees to have sex every day until they get married.

Biel has an impressive slate of projects on the horizon. She is part of the large ensemble of Garry Marshall's Valentine's Day, which is practically guaranteed to be a hit. Also, word is that she'll be appearing opposite Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper in The A-Team for director Joe Carnahan.

The French They Are a Funny Race...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:18:14 -0800

...and if you know the second half of the couplet begun in the above title, you ought to be ashamed of yourself (okay, e-mail me if you really, really need to know what it is. You perve.)

Anyway, for those of you keeping score, I am returned, safe and sound, from a truly magical week in Paris, and in retrospect it occurs to me that my recent coverage of the Franck Dubosc comedy Cineman -- which opened at L'Enfer Octoplexes all over France yesterday to (one presumes) rapturous reviews -- may have been unnecessarily dismissive of the French contribution to the art of movie-making in general.

Allow me, then, to recommend one of the truly worthwhile Gallic films of the young century, one that you may have perhaps missed. I refer, of course, to director Patrice Leconte's 2000 period piece heartbreaker The Widow of Saint-Pierre, starring the ever-luminous Juliette Binoche

The plot:

Madame La (Binoche) is the wife of a French military commandant (Daniel Auteuil) stuck in a remote French colony on the Canadian coastal island of St. Pierre in 1850. Life there is uneventful until the night a sailor murders a fisherman in a senseless, drunken brawl. The killer, Neel Auguste (Yugoslav director Emil Kusturica, who only looks like he fronted Canned Heat at the first Woodstock), is immediately remorseful, and Madame La begins performing little acts of kindness on his behalf. Eventually, Auguste returns her compassion by doing his own good turns for nearly everyone who lives on the island. In the process, he becomes a beloved figure to all but the bureaucrats awaiting the arrival of a guillotine (a "widow," in old French slang), which will allow them to get rid of the increasingly troublesome do-goodnik.

Obviously, there are all sorts of interesting moral questions raised amidst Leconte's gorgeous rendering of the Northern scenery. Here's the trailer to give you an idea.

Seriously, this is a really terrific little film -- reviewing it at the time, I think I said something along the lines of if it doesn't make you cry, I probably don't want to know you -- but I would be remiss if I didn't add that there's at least one moment that is just too French for words, if you know what I mean. Specifically, the scene where -- more or less out of the blue -- Auteuil's oh-so-proper Commandant sneaks home to sniff, quite enthusiastically, his wife's nightgown (presumably to demonstrate how hot their relationship is, as if we couldn't figure that out on our own).

In any case, you can -- and most definitely should -- order the DVD of The Widow of Saint-Pierre over here immediatement.

Coming tomorrow: Adjusted gross receipts for Cineman's first two days!

I kid, I kid!!!

Technicolor, Deluxe, Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm Create Silver Screen Fund

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:07:06 -0800

Orlando, Florida – Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS), through its Technicolor Business Group, has aligned with entertainment industry leaders Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Eastman Kodak Company, and Fujifilm to provide financial assistance to exhibitors seeking an immediate 3D solution. The Silver Screen Fund defers costs associated with the purchase and installation of silver screens by providing financial assistance to exhibitors who deploy the Technicolor 3D solution. The fund will be managed by Technicolor, which last week announced broad studio support for the Technicolor 3D solution.

The Silver Screen Fund will finance up to 500 silver screens to be installed at theatres in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Funding is available immediately for qualified exhibitors. When exhibitors complete the terms of the Silver Screen Fund agreement, they will own the silver screen, a necessary component for future digital 3D projection.

“Technicolor is committed to delivering high-quality, affordable 3D solutions, and the creation of the Silver Screen Fund accelerates our promise to our exhibition partners by helping them defer upfront costs associated with the purchase and installation of silver screens,” said Lanny Raimondo, head of Technicolor. “Thanks to overwhelming studio and industry support, we expect to sign up these first 500 screens in the coming weeks, keeping us on track to reach our target of more than 1,000 Technicolor 3D screens by mid-2010.”

“Deluxe is proud to have a long history of supporting our customers by providing whatever format they choose for their content. This technology bridge for 3D exhibition is a cost effective way to help our customers maximize their theatrical release schedules,” said Cyril Drabinsky, President and CEO of Deluxe.

“Right now, there are not enough 3D screens to accommodate major releases and the screen shortage becomes compounded when you consider issues of overlapping 3D releases,” said Kim Snyder, President, Entertainment Imaging, and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. “The industry desperately needs additional screens to satisfy demands by studios and movie fans, who consistently vote for 3D with their box-office dollar. The Silver Screen Fund levels the playing field so all exhibitors can realize the benefits of 3D presentations.”

“With the Digital 3D roll-out slowed significantly by the economy, and because of the prohibitive cost associated with digital cinema conversion, we believe Technicolor’s film-based 3D innovation is the right solution,” said Graeme Parcher, Group Vice President, FUJIFILM North American Motion Picture Group. “We are excited to partner with our industry colleagues to introduce this significant advance in film 3D technology.”

Technicolor 3D Motion Picture Support
Multiple major motion picture studios are supporting the Technicolor 3D solution. DreamWorks Animation, Lionsgate, Paramount, Overture, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., and The Weinstein Company are working with Technicolor to deliver content for presentation in Technicolor 3D.

Seventeen 3D titles have already been announced for 2010 release, with more expected from several distributors. The studios noted above account for the majority of these titles, including How to Train Your Dragon, Piranha 3D, Shrek Forever After, Despicable Me, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Friday the 13th: Part 2; Guardians of Ga’Hoole, Alpha and Omega, Burst, Oobermind, and Yogi Bear.

How the Technicolor 3D Solution Works
The Technicolor 3D Solution employs a proprietary “production to projection” system that leverages 35mm (or film) projectors already in use by the majority of U.S. and international theatres today to deliver high-quality 3D content to moviegoers. A patent-pending lens system assembles the left and right eye images as the film runs through the projector and delivers a 3D-ready image onto a silver screen. The solution works with circular polarized glasses—identical to the ones used for existing digital 3D cinema—to “translate” the film’s content into an image that is perceived by the viewer as being three dimensional. The silver screen can be used for the projection of both Technicolor 3D as well as digital 3D content. The Technicolor 3D Solution can be installed nearly immediately. No build-out or significant modifications of the projection booth are required.

‘Paranormal’ Remains #1 on Tuesday

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:04:07 -0800

Paramount’s Paranormal Activity led the daily box office for a seventh straight day on Tuesday with a daily take of $1.71 million. However, the film’s consecutive streak at #1 will end today with Sony’s release of Michael Jackson’s This Is It (which has already grossed $2.2 million from midnight screenings). Paranormal Activity was down a reasonable 8 percent from Monday and down a healthy 5 percent from last Tuesday (thanks in part to playing in 1,182 more locations this week). The 33-day gross for the ultra low-budget horror film stands at a terrific $65.14 million. Expect Paranormal Activity to continue to hold up well over the upcoming weekend, as it will represent the top alternative for moviegoers not interested in This Is It.

Remaining strong in second place was Overture’s Law Abiding Citizen. The R-rated action thriller was up 11 percent from Monday and down 35 percent from last Tuesday, which marked one of the day’s better holds among wide releases. Law Abiding Citizen has been flying under the radar when it comes to recent box office headlines, but the film has been a very consistent performer thus far during its 12-day run. Law Abiding Citizen has grossed $42.25 million to date, placing it 25 percent of the pace of 2007’s The Kingdom.

Saw VI was down just 1 percent from Monday to remain in third place on Tuesday. The latest installment in the horror franchise from Lionsgate grossed $0.87 million for the day, but the film’s five-day start stands at a disappointing $15.90 million. Saw VI is experiencing stronger midweek percentage holds than Saw V did at the same point in its run last year, but that means little when considering that Saw VI is running a massive 52 percent behind the pace of Saw V so far.

Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are experienced its first midweek daily increase yesterday. The big-screen adaptation of the popular children’s book was up 2 percent from Monday. However the film’s daily gross of $0.85 million was still down a sharp 52 percent from last Tuesday. Where the Wild Things Are has grossed $55.24 million through 12 days, placing it 12 percent behind the pace of 2000’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (without adjusting for ticket price inflation).

Though it started off modestly over the weekend, Fox Searchlight’s Amelia has been showing some positive signs during the midweek. The biopic starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere was up two spots and an encouraging 28 percent from Monday to finish in sixth place with $0.43 million on Tuesday. Amelia also boasted one of the day's better per-location averages with a mark of $521. The five-day cume for Amelia stands at $4.66 million.

Sony Succeeds with 'This Is It'

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:21:47 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This is It, the posthumous homage to the late King of Pop, grossed $2.2 million from midnight showings. According to Sony, the concert film has already exceeded that haul from Wednesday matinees.

Call it a pop culture hurricane or simply a belated embrace of the late star’s legacy, but whatever Sony Pictures did in the run-up to the film’s debut clearly clicked with audiences.

Sony Pictures deserves credit for properly massaging a pop culture phenomenon.

Sean Phillips, executive producer of Yahoo! Movies, says part of the studio’s successful marketing campaign for This is It boiled down to timing.

“The movie’s coming out so close to when he passed away. It’s tough to have more built-in publicity than that,” Phillips says.

And Sony wisely focused the film on Jackson’s talents, not his often disturbing personal life.

“It’s not going to dwell on any of his oddities or the well-known troubles in his life,” Phillips says. “He’s doing all the favorite moves we know and love, stuff the younger generation doesn’t even pull off.”

The studio also wisely made the movie something of an event, claiming it will only run in theaters for two weeks, “not unlike how the show was supposed to be,“ he says of the concert Jackson was preparing for in the weeks before his death.

Robert Marich, author of “Marketing to Moviegoers: Second Edition,” says the film’s sterling trailer whetted the appetites of long-time Jackson fans.

“They had a motivated fan base. So far, what they’ve shown satisfied them,” Marich says.

It better, since Sony ponied up $60 million to concert promoter AEG Entertainment for the rights to the rehearsal footage.

Marich says Sony also did a good job minimizing Jackson’s non-music headlines, focusing like a laser on his songbook.

“It’s an issue,” Marich says of the singer’s plastic surgery misadventures and criminal accusations. “He’s a tainted celebrity. It’s a wall that Sony had to climb.”

Even though the movie’s advance tickets sales have been through the proverbial roof, that doesn’t necessarily spell long-term success for This is It.

“I’m dubious that the advance ticket sales are projectable like some other movies like Harry Potter,” Marich says. “It’s an open question if it‘ll draw in a bigger audience.”

The film could fade as fast as it opened, he cautions.

“Concert films are like horror films. They can open strong but they traditionally don’t hold up,” he says.

The current hype surrounding the film could continue well past its theatrical run.

“The whole game isn’t cinema. It could do so-so in cinema and do gangbusters in DVD,” he says. “[Sony] has every incentive to really promote it.”

So what about a sequel?

Phillips thinks the creative folks behind the movie would prefer This is It to be the final, fitting tribute to Jackson.

But if the film keeps on selling tickets anything is possible. It wouldn’t be the first time the death of a singing legend kicked off the start of a new phase in his or her career.

“Sadly you never know,” Phillips says.

Natural Born Killers Director's Cut

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:03:43 -0800

Oliver Stone’s new cut of his infamous picture Natural Born Killers is 122 minutes of blood-soaked celluloid; a variably styled and affecting look at the now cemented violence of American culture and art. It is a disturbing work, mostly due to its bluntness. At the heart of the film is the contention that over-exposing viewers to wanton cruelty will in turn counteract the influence of the unjustifiably violent media—that, if we see enough shooting, stabbing, battery, and bludgeoning, we’ll eventually become self-aware of our de-sensitivity to it, and in turn question future applications of violence. Though ambitious in intent, I find Natural Born Killers treats its subject with too much vitriol to be successful.

Meet Mickey and Mallory (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis). He a directionless, TV-raised sociopath, she a victim of years of sexual and psychological abuse—they seem perfect for each other. Unfortunately, their shared bliss becomes the plight of society, as the two ransack the Midwest and leave a trail of dead to mark their conquering. Motive? Notoriety and personal indifference. Stone creates these sardonic constructs as a means to an end. Purported to illustrate the ill effects of a violence-saturated media, Mickey and Mallory are largely products of their environment—a unilateral approach to the ol’ Nature v. Nurture debate. Still, this conceit—and the conceit that the film is hypocritical in its use of violence to condemn violence—is acknowledged by Stone. Notwithstanding, this plan of attack trivializes the film’s commentarial purpose, for Killers ultimately reads as little more than an attack on a straw man society. In other words: the movie never establishes a link between an increasingly violent media and increasingly violent behavior and, because this is merely treated as a given, the picture in no way demonstrates causality and instead guises notions of commonality as such. This practice is deceitful and flattens the picture’s scope.

Killers is what I would describe as stylistically busy, though some aesthetic considerations are far from arbitrary. A bombardment of edits, filtration, and overlays keep the viewer at a self-imposed distance from the onscreen violence, as these techniques serve as constant reminders that this is, in fact, just a movie. This tactic also works to viscerally batter the hell out of its audience to the extent where the movie's “point” can’t be missed. Naturally, misinterpretations are still going to happen, and some superficially-minded viewers will see this as a championing of violence, rather than a condemnation of it. I get the point, but find Stone’s proach unconvincing—the experiential focus only masks flighty rhetoric. Other directors have successfully tested audience tolerance. Jean-Luc Godard made a career of cinematic transgression, though his hypercritical, essayist tendencies always expounded upon what’s onscreen. He oftentimes quoted literature and poems in intertitles to, not only punctuate an idea, but to provide that idea with a reflective, artistic context. The contrast of this would be Stone projecting “Too much TV” across Mickey’s chest – a flat motif, and one without a hint of self-satire. Contemporary counterpart Michael Haneke also has a history of boasting some rather malevolent imagery, but not without making more exacting points regarding the place of violence in cinema. Quentin Tarantino has done this as well, though usually with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Stone’s vision is desolate in terms of association. His broadest concerns – disdain for pop culture violence and those who perpetuate it (take that, Geraldo!)—crumble from a lack of ideological framework. The “reality” of Killers is one of sociopaths, sadistic lawmen, soulless journalists, and not-so-innocent-civilian causalities. Wondering what goes on inside Stone’s head seems like a natural response to such a film, but I’ll claim bliss in my ignorance. I’d rather imagine his horrors than be further subjected to them.

'Hancock' Helmer Leaves 'Dune' Behind

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:54:43 -0800

Source: Pajiba, CHUD

Peter Berg, director of The Rundown and last year's massively successful Hancock, has left Paramount's new big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Screenwriter Josh Zetumer, currently hard at work on developing a fourth Bourne film, turned in a 175-page draft of the script earlier this year, and Berg reportedly met with Twilight star Robert Pattinson about taking a role in the movie. However, Berg is already working on Battleship and a tentative commitment to a Hancock sequel, so when he was offered the chance to direct even further projects at Universal, he chose to leave Dune. Herbert's book was previously adapted by David Lynch in 1984, and as a TV miniseries starring William Hurt in 2000 (which was successful enough to spawn a sequel, called "Children of Dune").

The studio is reportedly looking to film the movie for a smaller budget than Berg's version, and has reportedly put offers out to Neil Marshall (Doomsday) and Neill Blomkamp (District 9). The film was tentatively slated for 2010.

Two Stars Pick a 'Town House'

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:20:31 -0800

Source: Variety

Oscar nominee Amy Adams and comedian Zach Galifianakis have signed on to appear in director John Carney's dramedy Town House for Fox 2000.

The story (based on Tish Cohen's debut novel) follows an agoraphobe, living off his inheritance from his rock star father, which includes both money and the title town house, which he shares with his teenage son. When the money starts to dry up, however, he's forced to come out of his shell, with the help of a friendly call girl.

Galifianakis starred in The Hangover, the biggest hit of the summer, and has since lined up several projects, including Due Date and Dinner for Schmucks, while Adams appeared in this year's Nora Ephron's cooking comedy Julie & Julia and the Ben Stiller comedy sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, with Leap Year and Darren Aronofsky's The Fighter on the horizon. Fox is hoping to film Town House in 2010.

'This Is It' Continues to Surge

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:10:29 -0800

Wednesday Morning Update (9:10 a.m. PT): The film currently represents 77 percent of Fandango.com's daily sales. Here are some other stats from a Fandango survey:

- REPEAT VIEWINGS: 45 percent say they plan to see the movie in the theater more than once.
- NEW AUDIENCES: 48 percent claim that since Michael Jackson’s untimely passing they are more interested in his past works.
- THE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: 76 percent had never seen Michael Jackson perform live in concert.
- DVD & ALBUM SALES: 84 percent plan to buy the DVD when it comes out; 77 percent will buy the soundtrack album.

Monday Morning Update (10:28 a.m. PT): This week, This Is It continues to dominate Fandango.com's ticketing numbers, with sales for the concert film representing 61% of all tickets sold. When combined with early advance sales for New Moon, the two films comprise 89% of Fandango's daily sales.

* 43% of This Is It moviegoers responding to the Fandango survey say they are hardcore Michael Jackson fans; 49% are big fans, but like the work of other artists too; 7% are casual fans; 1% of respondents do not consider themselves fans at all.

* 48% of This Is It moviegoers are more interested in Michael Jackson’s work since his untimely passing; 51% say his passing has not changed their interest; 1% said they’re less interested since his passing.

* 60% sampled one or more songs from the This Is It album (as of last Friday, before the album’s release).

* 29% did not see Thriller when it premiered on TV in 1983.

Michael Jackson's This Is It

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:52:19 -0800

"The Church of Rock and Roll!" yelps tour director Kenny Ortega as the crew rises to its feet for Michael Jackson's rehearsal of "Billie Jean." No question: to fans, Jackson was the messiah. And this documentary is his resurrection. This reverential but genuine before-the-concert film corrects the tabloid impression that Jackson spent his final days (years?) as a pill-addled hasbeen. Here, we see the master close to the top of his game—a feat for practice footage of a 50 year old who hadn't toured since 1997. This is his ’68 Comeback Special and audiences will show their gratitude at seeing the legend restored with thrilling ticket sales during its two-week run.

First, we must confront the legitimate fear that This is It is exploitative. Our recent post-mortem culture has given us cause for concern. (Google "Anna Nicole Smith.") If Britney hadn't survived her head-shaving meltdown, I'd boycott any producer who tried to gild her final project into a special event. But as the film's director, Ortega is as slaveringly solicitous to his subject as he is in the rehearsal footage where he appears. (Between helming the tour and this film, he also directed Jackson's Staples Center memorial.) 100 hours of casual footage were shot and the two hours we're given haven't a hint that Jackson will die of a painkiller overdose eight days before the tour crew decamped to England. This is certainly due to a legal clause between Jackson's estate, Sony and AEG Live that "footage that paints Jackson in a bad light will not be permitted." It might—just might—also be that Jackson was fine. (The flick doesn't do any favors for the doctor still hounded with a manslaughter investigation.)

For a man dismissed as a recluse, we here see his smooth teamwork as he receives compliments with '"God bless you" and offers criticisms capped by "With love. L-O-V-E." For a rumored heavy pill user, he's alert enough to vamp even a simple arm wave into eight small, crisp flourishes of shoulder, elbow and wrist. For someone on his last legs, he's less winded than his backup dancers who have 30 lbs of extra muscle and 30 fewer years on him—plus he's singing. And for a quick cash-in borne of financial desperation, Jackson's attention is on every single drumbeat of the show. (I wanted to kick the chair of a nearby guy who snickered when musical director described the King of Pop as "hands-on.") Based on his preparations for the show, Jackson sincerely believes he's creating a gift for his fans—even hooking up Swarovski with scientists in the Netherlands to make sure his sparkles are the world's sparkliest. He climbs out of giant spiders and halts prop bulldozers with a single, "Hooooo!" "We want to show them talent they've never seen before," he emotes to the crew. And for 44 years, that's just what he tried to do.

We're used to the idea that athletic live concerts are grudgingly allowed some lip-syncing. We even take it as the rule. But we learn that Jackson was committed to singing, and did so even through these rehearsals, apologizing for protecting his voice as he belts out an album-perfect chorus. Stretched out through these ten intensive practices (my rough estimate based on his outfits), that's dedication—especially with 50 exhausting concerts ahead. Those who never saw him live and only knew him through slick singles, videos and appearances get a tiny thrill from hearing the rawness that comes from his commitment to craft, those moments he skips a lyric because he's shifted attention to his feet.

I choose to take it as a sign of old-fashioned celebrity politesse that Ortega allows Jackson to be remembered for his talents. He's human here—at least, far more than we're used to seeing him—his worst fault is his affection for Christian Audigier and t-shirts with Popeye spackled in bling. To snipe that a pop star doesn't merit the reverential rank of Mother Teresa is petty (and proof one hasn't read Christopher Hitchens' savage takedown The Missionary Position). But the film doesn't ask experts (read: celebrities) to wax on about his worth. The only people that talk about him are the only people who should—the crew who knew him when he was at his most-Michael: performing for the public, the only constant in his life. Every hand on deck gets a turn, from the backup dancers who wept when they were cast, to Orianthi Panagaris (the 24 year old blonde lead guitarist that I want to be when I grow up), to the in-ear monitor audio technician given his due in the credits. Jackson is the star, but Ortega is clear that this isn't a one-man show. The tour Jackson called his "final curtain call" might be his last bow, but his inspiration lives on.

Distributor: Sony Pictures
Cast: Michael Jackson
Director: Kenny Ortega
Producers: Paul Gongaware and Randy Phillips
Genre: Documentary/Music
Rating: PG for some suggestive choreography and scary images.
Running time: 112 min.
Release date: October 28, 2009

Sandler Boards 'Jack and Jill'

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:16:10 -0800

Source: Variety

Adam Sandler will star as both Jack and his twin sister Jill in Jack and Jill, a new project being housed at Columbia.

Sandler is coming off the financial failure of Funny People, which represented a darker turn for the comedic actor. Luckily, he should rebound with Grown Ups, a comedy that is due in June 2010 and co-stars Kevin James, Chris Rock and Salma Hayek, among others.

By taking on multiple roles in the same movie, Sandler joins fellow Saturday Night Live alums Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers. Both Murphy and Myers have had success with the concept.

Scenes From an Unwritten Screenplay: Jeanne Samary et Moi

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:34:09 -0800

Somebody -- well, actually it was me, yesterday -- once said that in Paris, a movie-worthy story is where you find it. So here's another, and while granted it isn't as intense as the one about the murdered Frenchy with the film genre named after him I wrote about Tuesday, it's kind of sweet and romantic anyway.

Short version: Earlier this week I found myself wandering around the Carnavalet, the incomparable French history museum, when I turned a corner and found myself face to face with this remarkable painting of a young woman -- famous in her day but alas unknown to me.

And immediately fell in love.

My god, I thought. What a doll. Who was she?

Well, according to the descriptive note with the painting (in French, 'natch) she was Jeanne Samary, a gifted actress and comedienne born in 1857. A beloved star of the Comedie Francaise, she was also a famous model and the author of a best-selling children's book before her death -- under "mysterious" and apparently violent circumstances in 1890, a "shocking" event that was the talk of the city for weeks.

Like I said, I was instantly in love, but I needed to know more. What terrible thing had happened to her? Had she been murdered by a jealous lover? Was she the victim of some Parisien Jack the Ripper? How could she have been taken from me so horribly?

Alas, a subsequent search of Le Google revealed that her history, while tragic, was not quite as dramatic as my inaccurate translation of the painting's descriptive note had led me to believe. Which is not to say her life and my doomed love affair with her lacked cinematic apeal.

The portrait itself (from 1880) was painted by Louise Abbéma...

...who apart from being quite a celebrated artist (self-portrait above) in her own right was also the long time friend and (reputedly) the lover of legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt. So already this story has hot girl-on-girl action.

My beloved Jeanne had also been painted on several occasions by the great Pierre Auguste Renoir himself, most notably in this charming portrait -- The Reverie -- from 1877, when she was a mere twenty years old. And don't tell me there wasn't some kind of hanky-panky going on with those two!

In any case, Jeanne's death was fairly prosaic, if terribly sad; she died, quite suddenly, of typhoid fever (there was a lot of that going around back then), leaving a husband and two young children (who apparently survived her, which means she may have great grandkids wandering around somewhere) behind to mourn her before I came along.

As for the movie, I see a Julie and Julia sort of deal, with a character modeled on me as the basis for a framing story where I track down the scandalous details of her brief life and discover that we were actually related (just to give it a little extra frisson). I'm thinking Michael Bay to direct (he's so good with women), Justin Long as me, and I'm currently stumped who might do for my beloved; if you have any ideas, contact my rep Morty Lachman at the Gonif Agency and we'll get the wheels moving toot sweet.

‘Paranormal’ #1, ‘Citizen’ #2 on Monday

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:51:57 -0800

Paramount’s Paranormal Activity continued to lead the box office with ease on Monday. The break-out horror film grossed $1.85 million for the day, which was down 62 percent from Sunday and down a slim 6 percent from last Monday. Both decreases represented the smallest experienced by any film in wide release yesterday, though the film’s Monday to Monday decline was aided greatly by playing in an additional 1,182 locations. Paranormal Activity has grossed a very impressive $63.43 million in 32 days and should continue to hold up very well this week as Halloween approaches.

Law Abiding Citizen was up two spots from its fourth place showing over the weekend to finish in second on Monday. The R-rated film from Overture starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler grossed $1.06 million, which was down 65 percent from Sunday and down a solid 38 percent from last Monday. Law Abiding Citizen has grossed a better than expected $41.07 million in 11 days, which already makes it the highest grossing film to date in Overture’s young history as a distributor (the studio’s previous best being the $40.08 million gross of last year’s Righteous Kill).

Another R-rated film occupied third place, as Lionsgate’s Saw VI grossed $0.89 million for the day. That was down 64 percent and up one spot from Sunday’s performance (though the film was down one spot from its second place finish for the entire weekend). Saw VI has grossed a very disappointing $15.01 million through four days, as moviegoers have clearly chosen both Paranormal Activity and Law Abiding Citizen instead for their late October thrills. Saw VI is currently running 53 percent behind the pace of last year’s Saw V.

Warner’s Where the Wild Things Are finished in fourth with $0.83 million. That was down 77 percent from Sunday and down a steep 58 percent from last Monday. Thus far Where the Wild Things Are hasn’t been family friendly enough to register huge Saturday and Sunday grosses, but at the same time in skewing at least partially towards younger audiences the film is also experiencing large Monday declines. That combination, on top of mixed word of mouth, is taking a toll on the film’s holding power.

Couples Retreat rounded out the day’s top five with $0.69 million. After experiencing a notable decline in its second week, the PG-13 comedy from Universal stabilized nicely this past weekend. As a result Couples Retreat was down just 36 percent from last Monday and is in better shape to reach the $100 million milestone by the end of its run. Couples Retreat has grossed $78.43 million in 18 days, placing it $21.57 million away from $100 million.

Sony Signs Digital Cinema Agreement with Overture Films

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:04:03 -0800

SAN DIEGO – Sony Electronics’ Digital Cinema Solutions and Services Group has finalized a virtual print fee agreement with Overture Films. Under this non-exclusive arrangement, Overture will release its titles in digital format for playback in U.S. theaters equipped with Sony 4K projection systems.

The agreement marks the latest alliance for the Sony DCSS group with a motion picture distributor, following recent announcements with Walt Disney Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“The Sony digital cinema team has the right resources in place to give exhibitors the strongest foundation for digital cinema,” said Kyle Davies, executive vice president, theatrical distribution at Overture Films.

The Sony DCSS group was formed to provide turn-key solutions for exhibitors, enabling them to efficiently convert their operations to digital technology. In addition to digital projection system deployment, the DCSS group will offer installation and maintenance services, customized solutions, delivery of alternative content programming, and high-level service and support.

“Our agreement with Overture expands our efforts to give exhibitors the ability to provide their patrons with the highest-quality experience in theaters,” said Mike Fidler, senior vice president of Sony’s Digital Cinema Solutions and Services Group. “We will continue to forge and strengthen relationships with studios in order to increase the pipeline of digital and, ultimately, 4K, content for theatrical presentations.”

Overture’s first film under this new agreement is the box-office hit Law Abiding Citizen, about a brilliant sociopath seeking revenge for his wife and daughter’s murder. Released nationwide October 16, the movie stars Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. Up next on November 6 is the highly anticipated The Men Who Stare at Goats, a quirky dark comedy that follows the U.S. Military’s attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat its enemies, starring an ensemble cast that includes George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges.